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The Collector (2009)

Director: Marcus Dunstan

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Movie review

From Time Out London

Ex-con handy man Arkin (Josh Stewart) is desperate to pay off his estranged wife’s loan shark debts, so he breaks into his holidaying employers’ home to steal a valuable gem… and finds himself in a ‘Saw’ movie, complete with razor-wire, guillotined windows, fish hooks and a bear-trap. Marcus Dunstan, who co-wrote this and ‘Saw’ IV, V and VI with his partner, Patrick Melton, makes his directing debut with this low-budget, high- concept home-invasion movie. An enervating exercise in B-movie plot mechanics, serial killer clichés and ‘torture porn’ nastiness, Dunstan’s film not only insults one’s intelligence (how did The Collector rig these ingenious engines of pain in just a few hours?), it defies belief. The masked psycho killer’s cypher-thin victims – reluctant hero, wealthy suburban couple, rebellious teen daughter and horny boyfriend – are jerked about like puppets in a sado-slapstick Punch and Judy show. Meanwhile, the cranked-up action becomes exhausting, the ‘surprises’ more predictable, and the plot holes ever larger. Even for hardcore horror completists, this is no collector’s item.

Author: Nigel Floyd

Time Out London Issue 2079: 24-30 June, 2010

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User reviews of this film

KATY said...

Posted on Jul 02 2010 18:42 Best film I've ever seen, excellent film that has you on the edge of your seat throughout, recommended!

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Ben said...

Posted on Jun 26 2010 21:28 With it bieng from the writers of the Saw sequals one only has to wonder how bad this film is. But hey its not bad. The torture stuff and the bobby traps are a bore but theres some great suspense and the cat and mouse chase sequences were well staged. so all in all The Collector was something of a surprise but its time to draw a line under torture porn and call it a day.

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