Absence (2013) #378

The movie "Absence" is a fine little film if you're only interested in watching a home movie about a family vacation and not a horror or Sci-Fi film about alien abductions...but that is what the film is supposed to be about. The director and co-writer of the screenplay, Jimmy Loweree, apparently wanted to make a movie about aliens that abduct people as well as their unborn children, but had no ideas in which to share with the audience except for the rushed abduction at the very and a few insipid "weird lights" in the distance moments in the middle. I kept watching the film hoping that it had a slow burn kind of approach to the action but sadly it never came. The concept of a soon-to-be-mom suddenly losing her child without any idea how or where it went caught my eye but the filmmakers obviously had no clue on where to take the story after it's initial opening sequence. It is films like these that waste people's time and spoil a cool and refreshing concept, ruining it for others who may have had an actual story to tell.

The Collection (2012)

Marcus Dunstan, the writer of "Saw 4-7" and "Feast 1-3" wrote and directed "The Collection", a follow up to his 2009 film "The Collector". I have not seen "The Collector" but I can tell that "The Collection" is set on a grander scale that the first film. But bigger isn't always better. The movie feels too much like "Saw" while lacking it's "twisted" morale code; there are traps, not "games" that kill people throughout the film. The movie also wants to borrow obvious elements from classics like "Silence of the Lambs", at least that's how I see it. I am impressed with the character called Arkin, the only survivor from the first film. He comes across as fully developed and has a real sense of what he's doing in the film.

The movie opens with a series  of news reports, making it well known that The Collector is a wanted man and is being searched by a massive police force after being connected to the murder or disappearances of over of 50 people. He traps people in their homes or places of business and kills them, but he always takes one survivor back to his "lair".

The film then moves on to Elena, who is talked into going to a party with her friends. Of course the party ends up being the next target of the Collector, who easily kills everyone in a matter of seconds from his traps, more than doubling the number of people he has killed so far. During the chaos, Elena finds Arkin inside a large trunk. The two dodge traps as well as they can but Elena is ultimately caught in a cage, chosen as the survivor of the night. Arkin takes a dead body and uses it to break his fall as he jumps through a window and lands on a car below.

Elena happens to be the daughter of a very rich, important man. Elena's father has hired a group of mercenaries to rescue her but they need Arkin to tell them where she is and how to survive the Collector's traps. Arkin agrees to help after they offer to have his criminal record cleared. Arkin is able to lead the mercenary team to the abandoned hotel that the Collector is hiding at. Arkin is forced to join the mercenary team inside, and this is when everything goes to hell. The hotel is filled with traps, the Collector uses guns and dogs to attack the intruders, and Elena escapes, causing more confusion in the process. The rest of the film is a violent, thrilling journey into a mess of a film that shouldn't be analyzed or scrutinized at all.