(dir. Marcus Dunstan)
*First time viewing
What was
originally supposed to be a prequel to Saw,
before the idea was scrapped, became another exercise in torture: The Collector. The story follows Arkin,
a handyman by day and a burglar by night. Hired to steal a ruby to save his
family from loan-sharks, Arkin breaks into a house only the find that someone
else has broken in first and has filled every room with deadly traps. Arkin
must struggle to escape the house and save the family he was hired to rob.
The Collector is very clearly Saw-influenced in everything from the
traps to the lighting. But unlike Saw,
Dunstan’s film lacks a compelling narrative to go alongside all of its traps
and gore. There’s no real central mystery to the story, and the Collector is
basically motivation-less. We’re told he only collects the people he wants and
he kills the rest but we never get any insight into why he’s after the people
in the film. And if he’s collecting them, why go through all the torture and
traps first? It’s a film that seems like it was never able to seperate itself
from its initial pitch, and without Jigsaw the writers never figured out how to
build an interesting story around their villain. What’s left is a film that
assumes that blood and guts will be enough to satisfy horror audiences. And for
some maybe it will, but a film that’s only composed of flesh and lacks a
skeleton does not make a particularly memorable ride.
Scare Factor: 2/5 Most of the film’s tension comes
from the traps and ensuing gore and while it’s entertaining at times, the lack
of a compelling story makes The Collector
feel tedious after the first forty minutes. While the sequel, The Collection, is said to expand upon
this film, as a single entity The
Collector is lacking.
No comments:
Post a Comment