You can certainly see the roots that the Saw series has planted in The Collector, proported to have been written as a prequel to Jigsaw's original shenanigans. Our hero, Arkin, has a bit of a dilemma. At his core, he seems to be a decent guy but he has decided to rob his boss'/customer's house to bail his ex-wife out of the grips of a loan shark. He arrives at the house believing the family is out of town but quickly learns that not only is the family still present but they are being held by a low-budget Jigsaw who has the entire house booby-trapped. There is a bit of exposition by a previous victim about the villain's intentions but mostly the film consists of Arkin trying to help the family without losing any major body parts.
I will never understand the workings of film studios and how many films are conceived, greenlit, produced, and then left to flounder at the box office without much support. Having a good stream of movie articles in my RSS feed helped raise my awareness of The Collector but judging by the meager $7 million take when it was released last summer, the film could have benefited from a larger presence outside of the horror community. If any of the Saw films can break $100 million easily worldwide, The Collector deserves a bit more attention.
To be fair, for something that was supposedly riding on the coattails of Saw, director Dunston seems to go out of his way to separate this from a Saw film or one of its many knock-offs. Instead of ADHD-inducing jump cuts, throbbing techno music, and spinning cameras, it is mostly pretty straight forward in the story and the camera work. This is not so say that the above do not happen in this movie, they just happen with so little frequency that it seems more of a way to emphasis certain scenes without making the whole movie look like a Michael Bay music video.
Of the cast, I cannot say I recognized any of them prior to looking up their IMDb profiles. Michael Reilly Burke was vaguely familiar but the rest of the family and even Josh Stewart as Arkin were mostly foreign as I watched the movie which is a benefit. Not only are they all pretty good but not seeing a familiar face works to sell the story and the gravity of it without being distracted by a legitimate movie star.
The traps set by the Collector certainly lack a great deal of engineering expertise but their simplicity works to ground the story and turn the extreme home invasion into a more conceivable plot as compared to others in this genre. A common (and somewhat valid) complaint on this portion though was the painstaking process and time that must have been invested to set everything up in the house, especially considering the Collector had most of whom he wanted from the start. Of course, this being a horror movie, we have some stragglers who come along just to be killed but most of the traps seemed to be overkill (pardon the expression). But, the Collector is a pretty sick dude who toys with the family so everything is likely just for his entertainment.
Unlike some "torture porn" films of late, I feel this was not as tasteless or mean-spirited as it comes to human suffering. Sure there is some gore and some torture but I can't really say it is as over-the-top or incredibly cringe inducing as others. Not to say that I don't enjoy a good bout of agony every now and again but this just goes to separate it further from the duo's prior film series and class it up a bit (if you can for a film like this). The ending was on one hand expected and on the other a surprise in its execution so kudos to the filmmakers for keeping us guessing. And just like any other horror movie tries to do, we have a big sequel opportunity, not that one will ever get made though.
So, I'm guessing you haven't seen The Collector. If that is the case, go rectify that as it is an above-average modern day horror film. It may not scare you that much but you'll still thank me. And Marcus Dunston and Patrick Melton as well.
Comments
Post a Comment