DVD Reviews

The Collector – DVD Review

By Frankie Dees Apr 6, 2010, 16:20 GMT

An ex-con plots a heist at his new employer\'s country home, unaware that a second criminal has also targeted the property, and rigged it with a series of deadly traps. ...more

From the writers of ‘Saw IV’, ‘Saw V’ and ‘Saw VI’ threatens the DVD case of ‘The Collector,’ but first-time director Marcus Dunstan actually manages to fashion a better film than any of ‘Saw’ sequels - if only by a pulled out fingernail. 

Once the rules of the ‘The Collector’ are established, you will not have any problems sniffing this out as a ‘Saw’ knock-off but where the ‘Saw’ films have become progressively glossier and pointless, the lack of budget forces Dunstan to get a little more creative by only using one setting and a handful of characters. 

We meet Arkin (Josh Stewart), a handyman locksmith, as he’s on the job at the home of wealthy local jeweler. Getting familiar with the Chase family including a young daughter about the same age as his own, the jeweler father Michael (Michael Reilly Burke) even gives Arkin a little extra money for a job well done. 

With Arkin’s ex-wife in trouble with loan sharks and needing cash before the end of the night, he has no choice but to stage a break-in of the Chase family home (knowing they were taking a trip) to gain some money to pay off the loan sharks - a decision that really gives credence to that old adage ‘crime doesn’t pay.’

Ready to make his play for the safe, he hears a creak in what should have been an empty house. He isn’t alone. It seems someone with a more villainous intent is wreaking havoc on the Chase home, a leather-mask wearing freak with beady insect-like reflective eyes and a penchant for death traps.

In fact, the speedy set-ups and ingenuity involved with these death traps make me wonder if this is little Macaulay Culkin’s character from ‘Home Alone’ all grown up?

Nails are protruding from the steps, acid sprawled across one of the bedroom floors, fish hooks dangling in the bathroom, knifes ominously taped downward on the hall chandelier. Arkin has unwittingly walked into a death trap with every door and window barred shut. And it looks like the Chase family never left. So it’s a game of cat and mouse and Arkin has to decide whether to save himself or risk his life to save the family. 

The core idea isn’t bad, pitting a bad guy against a really bad guy, an effective plot device that goes back to Fritz Lang’s ‘M’ which adds a layer of dimensionality to the proceedings i.e. exactly how bad is our ‘protagonist’?

Will he allow innocent people to die? And extra points will no doubt be rewarded by Fangoria readers for extra-gruesome set-pieces. 

But we’re definitely not dealing with ‘The Shining’ here as the low-budget is readily apparent particularly in the rough first fifteen minutes where the grain and camera set-ups reek of a home video and a shock ending that seems tacked on and desperate to please the horror masses looking for some sort of wham-bam ending. 

The 2.35:1 anamorphic image is pretty ugly though most of the ugliness seems a result of intentional saturation and a layer of grain to convey some sort of 70s 16MM feel. The 5.1 Dolby Digital Mix is a mostly heavy mix of shock jumps in the music and annoyingly low dialogue mixing. 

A few special features start off with a feature-length commentary with director Marcus Dunstan and co-writer Patrick Melton that makes for an enlightening listen for any wannabe low-budget horror pic auteurs out there. Five minutes of ‘Deleted Scenes & an Alternate Ending’ adds a little with a music video “Beast’ and a theatrical trailer rounding things out. 

Make no mistake, this pic is for low-budget horror fans only but it’s far from the bottom of the barrel as far as straight-to-vid horror pics go. If you find entertainment in the ‘Hostel’ and ‘Saw’ films, this is probably worth a rental but everyone else, especially kitty and doggy fans, should steer clear. 

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