The Collector

The Collector
by Jose

What’s it about?
Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer's country home, unaware that a second criminal has also targeted the property, and rigged it with a series of deadly traps.

Appetizer

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Arkin (the ex-con played by Josh Stewart) can’t catch a break. He’s working as a handy man for a rich family, has a wife and daughter he needs to take care of, along with lone sharks ready to bite. Arkin needs money desperately. So he decides to steal from the rich family in order to pay back all that he owes. But what he doesn’t realize is that a simple in and out robbery turns into a fight for his life and the life of the daughter of the family.
The movie starts with a bang literally making you jump. So far it’s off to a good start. The opening credits are actually quite good with techno-industrial music playing. The beginning of the movie starts off slow introducing the most of the characters. Arkin and the Chase family. A rich family with the obvious characteristics: wife that injects herself with botox, business father, slutty teenage daughter, and a regular daughter. We then go off and meet Arkin’s family; along with the trouble of lone sharks that are tearing them apart. We then meet someone Arkin knows, although it is not really made clear who it is, but Arkin make a deal to steal from the Chase family to get money to pay off the lone sharks by midnight that night. So this is when the fun starts.
Arkin reaches the house but is met by a dog chained to the yard. Wasn’t there before. Enters the house and finds the safe. Too easy right? Arkin goes to open the safe when the front door opens and someone else enters. Someone with a mask. A mask and a knife. Arkin goes to leave but then is introduced to a wide array of traps.

So is it any good?

The Collector will have you on the edge of your seat. It is a great thriller from beginning to end. The Collector himself is just so damn creepy. But it’s not because he is a monster, or how he is dressed. I mean he wears all black even down to the medical gloves and mask. It is his eyes. Those damn eyes of his. The eyes go from shark black in one scene to silver in other then a glowing green in others. It’s just wrong. In a good way to make the viewer uncomfortable. Now on to the traps. Yes the meat of this movie, the traps. We get a chandelier with knives strapped on. A room “webbed” with razor wire. A room filled with huge hanging fishing hooks. A floor that has this sticky, glue like substance on the floor that eats away at whatever gets stuck. All I got to say about that is poor cat.

The Collector offers up plenty of gore obviously. Cuts, burns, stabbings, things sliced in half, and sliced off, mouths sown shut, electrocutions, and my favorite: the bear trap death. Yes the bear traps. In one scene a victim gets pushed into a floor filled with bear traps. First the ankle, then a knee, an arm, chest, back, then finally the head. All snapped up by bear traps. The blood flows freely and it is a good thing.
Now obviously your going to read all that and say to yourselves. “Hey this sounds all too familiar” “This sounds like a rip-off of SAW”. Well you’re right and wrong. It's written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (who also directs), the writing team who penned the last three Saw films (including part VI). But The Collector is its own thing and dare I say better then those movies mentioned. To me it has to do with it being a “raw” movie. No extra story. No extra nonsense. It is a straight forward horror movie. There is no reason behind the deaths and traps. No reason behind why the killer picked this family. We don’t know who the killer is at all. All we know is that he kills. He kills everyone except the one he wants to keep. The one he wants to collect.

Final thought:
The Collector is a great horror movie that I really enjoyed. I, personally, wouldn't mind seeing more of The Collector as I like the idea and the character.

Rating: 4 out of 5