The Collector (2009)

Since I've already reviewed "The Collection" http://hauntingchillingthrilling.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-collection-2012.html , it only made sense that I would get around the the original film, "The Collector". Being the first film it is smaller in scope, has a slightly lower budget, and a much smaller death count. Although writer/director Marcus Dunstan originally wanted to make this film into a "Saw" prequel (Dunstan had written the final four "Saw" films), the producers made him make this into an new film franchise. While the movie takes place in a single, large family home, the traps that the Collector has set feel more like booby traps than "Saw" like games, where as in "The Collection", there are a few traps that do feel like games. What's great about "The Collector" when compared the "The Collection" is that we fully see Arkin's character, learn in a bit more about the Collector, and that the film doesn't feel to over the top. Some may say that this is just another Torture Porn film but I see this particular film less in the vein of "Hostel" or "Saw" and more akin to "Last House on the Left".

Ex-felon Arkin is trying to live a life on the straight and narrow but he's forced back into the life of crime when he finds out that his wife owes a large sum to violent loan sharks. Up to this point, Arkin has been working as a handyman for a nice family who is restoring their giant house. For some reason they have a huge gem in their safe and that is what Arkin is planning on using to pay of his wife's debt. Unfortunately for everyone, a serial killer with an appreciation for bugs, torture, and deadly traps has decided that this nice family are to be his next victims and that Arkin is now also a would-be victim as well....


Favorite moment - I was truly impressed by the effects and filming techniques used when an ambulance is hit and you see the people and supplies inside fly around as the ambulance tumbles over.

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.