First, let’s get this out of the way and just say that the
first movie in this two-part series is absolutely terrible. I hated it. Yet, I
continued to watching it; chalk that up to its short run time I guess, and the mood being where it was at. The
second film – The Collection – was much better (although still bad, I suppose).
What happened? Well, it was a Sunday afternoon and I was
hunting for something to watch, so I had a look at recent movies I've acquired
and there sat The Collector. Now, normally I would browse right past this movie
but recently the sequel had come out and I had a brief discussion with my
friend about it, and how it could be a good horror b-movie to watch one night.
Then he said it was the sequel to a film: The Collector. Makes sense, but in my
mind: my friend knew about this film series and hence, it may be worth
watching. I do enjoy these short thrillers from time to time.
Well, the first act of The Collector was insensible and
seemingly pointless. I had difficulty following along, as I was drawn to my
tablet for some casual Reddit browsing. The main character had a lurid past
(maybe) as he was mixed up with the wrong people; the same people who were now
forcing him to crack a safe in somebody’s house to get something, or else his
family was in “trouble” which I took to mean, they would be tortured and
murdered brutally. So our protagonist goes into this house (which he is
somewhat familiar with already because he’s a handyman of sorts who was working
there earlier) and discovers that somebody else is also in the house (who does
not belong) and all of a sudden, the entire house is full of traps and deadly
obstacles! Our friend here had managed
to get all the way into the master bedroom but was now trapped inside the
house, unable to leave.
My first thought was how long it would take our killer to
setup all of this in the house. In movie time, it must have taken a short while
but the traps are elaborate enough that I could foresee a team of contractors
taking days to get this stuff done. In any case, we find out the family is in
trouble (the parents trapped in the basement, being tortured) and the young
daughter is hiding somewhere – apparently for hours as the collector setup the
house. The movie turns into a claustrophobic, fairly generic thriller from here
on out, with predictable results and a cliché ending. Here’s my malfunction
with this (because otherwise it would be merely decent): the Collector does not
collecting in the movie, or at least, doesn't make it clear why the movie is
called The Collector. He’s just trapping, and killing people in horrific ways.
I got a heavy Saw sense from this, and lo-and-behold, it turns out this was
written as a Saw sequel but was rejected; presumably it was retooled a bit to
get its own franchise going. The second item was how the protagonist’s family
issue was completely unresolved: midnight came and went, with not a mention of
them. The credits rolled and I was left to wonder.
Fear not though, because the family is back in the second
one, just to confirm that they were OK, I guess.
The second movie was much, much better. There was very
little setup as we get into the traps and horrific deaths very quickly. This is
kind of what you came for, and it delivered: a movie-standard team of heavily
armed “professionals” enter the Collector’s warehouse of terror with the goal
of saving a girl and proceed to die one by one. But here’s the key: they add a
little backdrop by throwing in media reports: the Collector is a serial killer
who traps people in their own house – killing them of course – but taking one
person home. They indicate that there are about fifty missing people so
presumably, his home base is going to be full of these people and they are also
going to die horrifically. Our protagonist from the first film comes back to
guide the goon squad and what we’re left with is a fairly tight, short film
that doesn't linger long before showering us with blood and gore. Predictable?
Of course, but that’s beside the point when taking in a film that knows exactly
what it is, which the filmmakers seemed to have missed on the first go around.
In the end, neither one makes a compelling reason to spend
time with: skip the first and see the second, or skip them both.
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