The Collector? Collect your belongings and exit the theatre maybe.
The Collector of 1965 fame was quite a gem, but I was not at all prepared for this unrelated atrocity of a torture horror film. In fact, the first few minutes of The Collector 2009 were actually compelling, with hints at character development and a 70’s cinematographic flair. Unfortunately, the film quickly butchers itself into nothing but pure graphic torture horror, dragging down with it unnecessarily exploited children and animals.
Horror Queen Says: Bloody Thumbs Down!
Written by BHM Contributor Horror Queen
July 31, 2009
Watch The Horror Movie Trailer!
Release: July 31, 2009
Directed by:
Written by: Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan
Starring:
Madeline Zima as Jill
Andrea Roth as Victoria
Josh Stewart as Arkin
Daniella Alonso as Lisa
Robert Wisdom as Roy
I realize there are fans of the torture subgenre (case in point the success of the Saw series, the last three of which were written by The Collector’s Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan), I just can’t imagine who they are.
Arkin, the hero of our story (by hero I mean dead beat dad who’s also an ex-con) is on his way to burglarize his new employer in order to give money to his ex-wife so she can pay back some nice loan sharks. An oddly likeable character, Arkin is distracted from his attempted felony when he realizes the family is actually at home and being tortured with meticulously laid human traps ala Home Depot, set by a masked serial killer: The Collector. Now Arkin must turn his attention to saving the family, and still get back to his ex-wife by midnight. Tick, tock.
That’s as far as we go with a plot. The rest of this film is one bloody, anguishing torture scene after another, some images of which I will never get out of my head thanks to the twisted mind of Writer-Director Marcus Dunstan - limbs crunching in bear traps, tongues being cut off, hair and skin sizzling in battery acid.
And of course the standard horror film frustration: why not call 911 early on or shoot the assailant with your friggin’ gun? With this film, however, we’re almost too busy gagging and thinking ‘I should walk out, I should walk out’ to even notice all the discrepancies in the film. And as if the graphic violence isn’t enough we have to throw in some animal cruelty and�child abuse for good measure? Dunstan has no limits.
After the longest 88�minutes I’ve endured since 88 Minutes, Arkin manages to save the little girl and escape the serial killer only to race out into oncoming traffic and…get hit by a car? What a loser.
Can Arkin eventually stop The Collector? Unfortunately, and I do mean unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for the sequel to find that out…
Horror Queen Says: Bloody Thumbs Down!
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