The Collector (2009)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It's hard to know what to say about a movie like "The Collector", because it can be summed up so briefly. It's like a low-rent version of "Saw".The movie is about a guy who intends to burgle a house he has done some handyman work at to pay a debt to some loan sharks. He breaks in there, but finds another criminal has already visited the place and filled it with traps.That's basically it.The comparison to the "Saw" movies, I feel, is going to be unfavourable from most people in the audience, because the traps in this one aren't nearly as creative.One weird detail is that the shiny-eyed, masked serial killer in the movie is played by Juan Fernandez, the Dominican actor who Charles Bronson attempted to make eat his own watch in the sleaze classic "Kinjite". In any other horror flick the masked killer is always played by a stunt-man, but here, they chose a fifty-something year old actor, who never takes his mask off?Weird.

When people render film reviews many will go into who played what and why or talk about the personal biased towards certain performances. I try to avoid the whole realm of your typical film reviews.The truth about this movie is it is simple. Not truly scary or in the Genre of Horror- it has a draw from SAW but that is where it ends. The basis for the plot is generic at best, a man goes to rob a place to pay off loan sharks for wife and gets caught in a web of sadistic torture. The house this takes place in, come on, way to small of a house to hold that many traps, and when did this killer have the time to set up these traps when the sub text this was all supposed to take place within a day. Although I did like the story itself, Josh Stewart was terrible acting wise in this. To many things seem to get swept to the side, and there are obvious points the writer and directors left out for speculation. The traps were interesting as they were to inflict the most pain. I give this a somber 5

Awful and boring. Not anywhere near as good as the Saw films.

The writer of "Saw IV" and V directed this one and it is similarly a work of greatness. It doesn't have a the budget or acting power of a Saw sequel but it evens out to be an amazing home invasion thriller/horror. I highly enjoyed it.You get to see the morality of a person tested, in a way like "Saw." Any artist who works on such a powerful franchise as "Saw" is bound to carry over some stuff. Don't go into it expecting that because it's very different but the quality of film-making is on par with that and the horror conventions the collector has assembled in this home invasion film beg a comparison.I recommend this film most for the thriller aspect, though the horror is right there all the way through. I enjoy watching good vs. evil on screen, especially when the writer/director teases the audience with who is the most moral and does it ever change in the movie. With better acting and more of a high tech look, I'd have given this thriller a 10/10. It is still an awesome film that I recommend.