Review: The Collector

The Collector (2009)

Coming from the makers of Saw IV, V and VI is The Collector. A film that with no doubt will fit the requirements for the “torture porn” genre, with more gore than you can shake a stick at, does The Collector produce an exciting film on a modest budget?

The Collector tells the story of Arkin, a recently released ex-convict that made some friends and enemies while behind bars. He has until midnight to pay off his daughter’s mother’s debt, and the only solution he can think of is to burgle his boss’s country home. Unaware however, that a far more sadistic enemy has already broken into the house, and has entirely different, much more brutal mission in mind. The antagonist is known (unsurprisingly) as The Collector. His desire is to collect people, in his red and black box, and kill all those who he doesn’t want to collect. A game of cat and mouse ensues, in a house littered with various traps, Arkin must save his boss’s family from this villain.

The characters in The Collector are decent, but none of them are really around for long enough to become likeable. Josh Stewart does a relatively good job of playing the protagonist, Arkin. But ultimately The Collector isn’t really a film you would watch for the acting anyway, as the gore and action scenes take centre stage. However, what is there on the emotional side of things isn’t embarrassing and far from bad, with The Collector himself getting praise as a character for being so brutally evil it’s refreshing.

The meat of the film comes in the gore, and the obvious elements of horror that The Collector prides itself on. The country house is a minefield of hazard, with barely visible wires scattered in high numbers. These wires could be as simple as with the intention to hurt, or they could be a trigger for something much worse, i.e. a chandelier that is covered with downturned knives will be signalled to coming crash down upon the unfortunate victim. Another involves a room that’s entirely covered on the floor with some sort of bear traps. As you can imagine these deadly, well planned concoctions raise the gore level significantly.

The central game of cat and mouse between Arkin and The Collector is very exciting, and the main point of praise for the film. It’s obvious who the audience wants to support, not as in Saw where there’s a whole moral issue, of whether Jigsaw is doing a good thing. The Collector is good back to basics horror, reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, one man on a mission for his own sadistic pleasure. It makes a tense film, with the worrying possibility that whatever room Arkin steps in next could easily be his last.

The Collector does very well in creating such a tense and pleasing film for horror fans on quite a small budget. Horror back to basics is what I would call it, and it really does leave the audience satisfied at the end of 90 minutes. There is a very minor twist at the end but this wasn’t a film I intended to watch for story. It may not be clever, complex or an Oscar contender, but it sure is worth renting for any fan of gore related horror films.

Score: 7.5

Recommendation: Rent/Buy if a horror fan