| Year of Release | 2009 |
| Director | Marcus Dunstan |
| Starring | Madeline Zima, Josh Stewart |
The Collector is one brutal film. Not for the faint of heart of the newcomer to the horror genre. I originally reviewed this one in 2016 but decided to give it another watch, I liked it the first time, so let’s see what else the film had to offer on this second viewing.
THE PLOT
The plot focus on Arkin who is doing some handyman work at a wealthy family’s house. As a subplot it turns out Arkin’s wife/girlfriend is in heap of debt to loan sharks and Arkin has to resort to pulling a heist at the house to raise money to pay off the loan sharks and get his missus and kid out of trouble. The house he’s working on provides the perfect means for this to happen. Arkin, is basically a good guy, he doesn’ mean anyone any harm and is just trying to keep his own family out of hot water. After doing the job he was supposed to do, he comes back later on to steal a particularly precious gem he knows is in the house.
Whilst breaking into the house he is disturbed by another break-in. It’s a slasher that proceeds to torture and kill everyone he comes across in the house. The ‘collector’ has laid out a series of insidious traps designed to capture, torture (and in some cases, kill) everyone in the house in the most gruesome ways possible. Arkin being the deep-down nice guy that he is tries to save the family from falling victim to this deranged sicko whilst of course also trying to keep himself alive. That’s about all I can really say without ruining the film.
While I quite liked the film, here lies my main problem with this movie. The bad guy breaks in and seeming instantly there is a serious of traps which have been meticulously laid out and planned to cause as much suffering as possible. Where did he get the time to do this, between Arkin finishing work and returning shortly after to clean out the family safe? Most of the family appeared to still be in the house as well. Why does he choose this family? Have they done something to him in the past?
THE VERDICT
Overall, I quite liked The Collector. If you as the viewer can suspend disbelief with this aspect of the film long enough to persevere, it’s a gritty affair that reminds me of the ‘Saw’ series of films. The acting in this is as good as it needs to be, no major star power (but Madeline Zima was the young girl in the TV series “The Nanny”, if any of you remember that). The killings are inventive and brutal and make for some high impact viewing. There is some tense moments moments in this one and the action is realistic and suspenseful. Over all this a pretty cool film. I think there is some potential for the ‘Collector’ to become a series. *Since originally writing this article there is now a sequel, I’ll have to check that out too, me thinks. This flick was good enough that I’ve now watched it again and would definitely take a punt on any sequel that might be floating around.
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