A man plans to rob his employer to pay a debt, unaware that a
serial killer has rigged the house with deadly traps in a sick game. HORROR
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The Collector (2009)Directed by Marcus Dunstan
Written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan Starring Josh Stewart, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Karley Scott Collins, Madeline Zima, Juan Fernández |
The Collector is a weak rip-off of the Saw franchise that sports a gaggle of uninteresting characters and a forgettable villain that wants so badly to be the next Jason or Freddy. I expected as much from a film with little to no story and tries to support itself with cheap torture porn scenes that leave little to the imagination, yet somehow come off looking less believable than the Hostel franchise. Frankly, if you don't already like that subgenre, you probably won't enjoy The Collector.
The plot revolves around a maniac called the Collector, who's M.O. seems to be common knowledge among the people he's targeted. He sets up elaborate traps around a family's house and kills all but one. The one he leaves alive becomes part of his collection, which I assume we will see in the sequel. This idea is intriguing, but not pulled off very well. The lead, played by Josh Stewart, is so remarkably forgettable and uncharismatic that it really doesn't matter to me if the Collector takes him out. The same goes for the rest of his victims, whose names escape me. The Collector wants to be the next big thing in horror, but falls flat because of its poor execution of a neat premise. Considering that the two screenwriters were the writers of the last few Saw movies, it's no surprise that they wanted their own shot at creating something memorable. They could've had it if they'd polished it a little more. Instead, we have a film that blatantly replicates the Saw formula but without the interesting characters. |