In 2009, Marcus Dunstan directed a pretty horror thriller called The Collector that introduced us to a new type of serial killer, one that felt like a mix of Jigsaw from Saw and your run of the mill ruthless serial killer. The Collector sets up elaborate traps around a house or building and kills off the people inside but always kidnaps one person if they manage to survive.
In 2012, a sequel, also directed by Dunstan, was released titled The Collection and it picks up shortly after the last one ends. The public is aware that a savage killer is out on the loose who kills without discrimination or any sort of pattern. When Arkin (Josh Stewart) escapes from The Collector after a mass killing, he is blackmailed into rescuing a girl named Elena (Emma Fitzpatrick) that was recently taken in front of his eyes. He must now enter the The Collector’s home turf with a group of hired guns if you will, navigate his rigged building and attempt to reunite the girl with her father (Christopher McDonald).
What makes The Collection interesting is it gives some context to why the killer takes people and what his other hobbies are. As Arkin and Lucello’s (Lee Tergesen) team, Elena’s protector, explore the massive structure, they encounter rooms filled with drugged up psycho humans, human carcasses, savage dogs, bug collections, and bodies that have been sewed together on display as art pieces more. It’s a twisted world that they enter and everyone is on the same page when it comes to getting in and getting out as quickly as possible, but The Collector has other plans for them as he methodically attempts to pick each person off one by one.
Earlier I compared The Collector to methodical killers like Jigsaw but he is also relentless like Jason Voorhees, the only difference being that he isn’t dead. In fact, he is the furthest thing from that and is actually both strong and skilled at hand to hand combat, not only making him deadly from afar through his traps but when you get close there is a good chance his superior knife skills will slice you up and end your life without hesitation.
There are some brutal scenes and kills in this movie, similar in nature to the Saw films but no matter how gruesome they were, I actually never thought they were gratuitous, which is shocking. When there was a lot of blood it’s because the death trap would certainly cause an eruption of blood splatter or when there were dead bodies lying around, it showed just how twisted The Collector actually is. This isn’t torture porn (though we do get a couple of booby shots just for good measure), this is a straight up horror thriller that has found the correct dose of gore to match the insanity of its killer while making sure you are constantly squirming in your chair because of the explicitness of the visuals.
The Collection isn’t perfect by any means, it is plagued by some crappy dialogue and the delivery of the bad dialogue from the actors also drags it down. Thankfully the tension created in the film is enough to distract you from some of the poor performances and script.
Overall, The Collection ended up being a pretty good horror film to kill some time, especially since it comes in at a brisk 82 minutes and wastes no time getting to the point of the film. In fact, it’s one of the few serial killing horrors that I’ve seen recently that I actually enjoyed and it ends up being a sequel worth watching, nearly living up to the coolness and originality of the first film.
Rating: A solid sequel that is sure to make your stomach churn at every turn (6.4/10)
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