The Collector Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A thief and a deranged serial killer both target a rich family's home after recent construction work.

Review: At first glance this appears to be nothing more than a huge "Saw" ripoff, but, interestingly, this film was originally written as a sequel to that franchise. Eh, you can still see elements in there, and I hate to imagine how it would have all connected, but in essence, this felt more like an '80s slasher meets "Saw." The story is that some thief (with a heart of gold yet again!), named Arkin, is targeting a jeweler's (at least I think that's what he was) mansion-esque home while coincidentally the titular character is also targeting the family for his amusement of sorts. Both characters were pretending to be individuals working on the home's recent renovation which allowed Arkin to get to know the layout and location of the safe while the Collector strategized how to set his little traps. Arkin wants the money to help his wife from some debts or some shit like that, but all of this felt so contrived so that we would care more about Arkin surviving; there is even some bullshit about Arkin and his daughter and just ugh whatever! Honestly, it would have felt more sincere if he was just a regular thief who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Did they not think the audience would cheer for a thief if his only motivation was greed? Anyway, when Arkin goes to leave the home, with loot in hand, he discovers many locks that were not on the outside of the doors. From here on out, Arkin witnesses the torture and killing of many characters as he lurks in the background trying not to be discovered by the Collector. It's kind of clever how every time Arkin thinks he finds a way out there is some elaborate trap blocking his way, and right when you think he's going to be caught the Collector thinks the commotion came from someone or something else. The traps were interesting enough and somewhat original, but I swear some traps were appearing out of thin air since I am certain Arkin passed by areas that were clear only later to be filled. This might make sense at first glance as you assume the Collector is setting them up as he goes, but we never see him with any gear, and he's always busy screwing with the family members...so what the fuck?! Speaking of the Collector himself, he looks just like the guy from the original "Prom Night" to me, but I suppose he's reminiscent of some S&M attire. Either way, he's a hit or miss for me, because I did think he was weird enough to creep people out, but he felt forced like they were trying too hard to make him bizarre; I also hated that he seemed to perpetually outsmart everyone and have too intricate of a plan for it to be reasonable. As far as the kills go they are nothing we haven't seen before, but the approach was decent and the anticipation was done appropriately with the right amount of pacing. The film is short enough as it is, but the original ending was at about the 60 minute mark which is ridiculous so I'm glad they lengthened it. The final survivor of the household is the youngest daughter whom reminds Arkin of his own daughter so he tries to rescue her immediately after finally escaping the home; this is funny because the original ending had Arkin ditching her so I do believe they made Arkin more family-friendly in later drafts of the script. By the end, Arkin and the daughter have escaped with the police finally showing up, but the Collector crashes into Arkin's ambulance and abducts him in a similar way to a guy at the beginning of the film. We see a shot at the end of the credits of Arkin kicking and screaming in the box as we are left to imagine what the Collector has in store for our dear hero. Now if a film wants to have real balls, end it with the dumb daughter being caught and us left to wonder the what the fuck he will do to her...now that's how you make a film memorable! Overall, this is a decent film in the vein of "Saw" while adding some interesting ideas. The Collector character isn't as cool as I had hoped, and the pointlessness of going out of the way to mask his face from the audience was annoying as if there was going to be some big reveal. This one's worth a view, but I feel it is overrated since it is already being considered a cult-classic.

Notable Moment: When the Collector is torturing Arkin and does some weird shit to him that doesn't seem to make sense except in the mind of a wacko.

Final Rating: 6.5/10