Thomas Bess’ review of:
Directed By: Marcus Dunstan
Starring: Josh Stewart, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Karley Scott Collins, Juan Fernandez
Run Time: 88 sneaky, splattery minutes.
Those of you who’ve seen the TV spots for The Collector have probably noticed a few rather bold statements included therein. One to the effect of “the must see horror event of the summer” and another declaring “a new horror icon is born”. Personally, I’d say that’s a wee bit hyperbolic, BUT it’s certainly not a bad movie by any means. If you’re looking for a mean-spirited slice of gooey goodness, it won’t disappoint.
Plot’s remarkably simple (like, it only needs about 10 minutes worth of exposition simple) — our hero is Arkin (Stewart), a fellow with a troubled past who’s trying to support his wife and daughter by working in a construction / contracting crew. Everything’s going relatively well until he discovers his better half has fallen in with some loan shark types and needs a large cash infusion fast if she wants to avoid violence of a knee-breaking sort. With nowhere else to turn, Arkin goes to one of his criminal contacts and promises to liberate a certain jewel from the house of the folks he’s currently working for. The job should be a fairly easy one as said family was heading out for a vacation, so Arkin shows up that night not expecting any trouble. Alas, trouble finds him as the family has been taken hostage by a sadistic serial killer, the titular Collector (Fernandez). What follows is a cat and mouse game as our noble burglar tries to keep everyone from becoming the latest additions to a madman’s collection.
There’s plenty to like about The Collector, especially if you’re a gore fan. While the traps rigged around the house are most definitely from the SAW school of thought, they differ in that they’re actual traps and not the sort of torture tests seen in that series. During the course of the film, bodies are mangled in some rather impressive ways — torsos are gutted, lips are sewn shut, heads are nailed and yes, the room full of bear traps you see in the trailer does come into play in one of the most wince inducing sequences I’ve seen in quite some time. Oh and a word of warning, for those of you who have no problem with violence against people but blanch at violence against animals, prepare to cover your eyes or make a trip to the lobby or two because our friend the Collector has absolutely no problem unleashing his wrath on our four legged friends. Also in the plus column is the hide and seek aspect of the first two acts — in most horror films, it’s the protagonist who goes about their business under the watchful eyes of the psychopath, but this flick has a nice twist on this formula wherein the Collector doesn’t even become aware of Arkin’s presence until the beginning of the last act (Though given some of the actions the burglar takes in defense of this family, I kept expecting the Collector to bust out with “Somebody else is in this fuckin’ house” at some point in the proceedings). When his presence is revealed the cat and mouse aspect goes right out the window and it’s a straight up, no holds barred war for survival until the credits roll.
That said, there are a couple glaring problems with The Collector as well. For one, just about every scene in the film is bathed in one of four glaring shades, either red, green, yellow or blue. While it worked sometimes, (mostly with the blue) often it was too noticeable and detracted from what was happening in the scene, kinda like watching a movie that was filmed through a giant Simon board. Even more annoying is — well, I wouldn’t really call it a plot hole, it’s more the filmmakers asking you to take something on faith and not question the ‘how’ because the end result is so cool. In this case, the ‘how’ is just how our murderous home invader breaks in, subdues this family and then rigs the house from top to bottom with traps that look like they’d require an MIT engineering degree to design, let alone rig in the span of a few hours. Along similar lines is the question of why the Collector would even need the traps in the first place. He’s got the mom and dad at his mercy already, that just leaves the two daughters, one of which is out of the house and blissfully unaware of any problem for most of the film. The younger daughter is in the house and obviously scared out of her mind, but she’s sure as hell not running around looking for a way out, so why go through the effort of turning the place into a Home Alone death trap? The obvious answer is, because the audience likes watching these gadgets hack, gouge and slice and that’s certainly true, but I would have preferred to see it explained in the context of the story, not the special effects budget. Oh and it’s a little thing, but I got tired of the comparisons between the Collector and spiders. Yes, we get it, he’s a sneaky guy and the traps are his web, no need to beat us over the freakin’ head with it.
Complaints aside, I enjoyed The Collector quite a bit. Those of you who need the who’s, what’s, when’s, where’s and why’s of a story fleshed out to be satisfied should probably look elsewhere as this story just dives right in and never looks back. But if you’re in the mood for bloody battle of wits between a vicious psychopath and a refreshingly competent hero, it’s definitely worth a look.
Til next time, always remember the calls are coming from inside the house.
The Collector Red Band Trailer:
Tom Bess has sideburns that are so big they might be considered a beard shaving accident from afar. He blames his current mental state on Stephen King, Mike Nelson, Seth McFarlane and Vince McMahon but bears them no ill will. He passes his time writing movie reviews, but will flee the interwebs forever as soon as Allison Mack starts returning his calls.
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