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Directed by Marcus Dunstan. Starring Josh Stewart, Juan Fernández, Karley Scott Collins. USA. Horror. 90 minutes.

DVD UK release date: 18th October 2010 (Certificate 18)

Arkin, an all-round handyman and safe-cracker, is working on the house of a jewel broker. His wife needs money to pay off her debts, otherwise she’s going to skip town with Arkin’s daughter. So he plans to rob the broker’s home to get her the money. However, the house has also been targeted by a vicious killer, who booby-traps the building to make sure no-one can leave.

The film opens to a couple finding a mysterious box in their house, they look terrified once they see what it contains – before we can see, a gloved hand grabs the husband. Cue titles. Next we see Arkin (Stewart) who’s helping secure an isolated house, ready for the family to move in. Once he finishes, he sets off to see his own family: his wife needs money, she’s in deep with loan sharks and unless she pays-up today, they’re going to seek repayment in their own inimitable way – her only option is to run, with their young daughter. Arkin knows that the father of the family he’s working for is a jewel broker and has a rare, valuable gem in his safe – and as a thief and safe-cracker, Arkin can use that jewel to save his family.

So he sneaks back to the lonely mansion in the middle of the night, masked up and ready to go. However, the eponymous Collector (Fernández) has also ear-marked the house, he’s there to do his dastardly deeds. The baddie – also masked, this time in a creepy, rubber, stitch-up job, leaving only his sparkly eyes showing – sets about making the building inescapable, by rigging it with a number of intriguing and ingeniously grotesque traps. Arkin spends the rest of the film trying to get out of the Home-Alone-for-psychos house, whilst trying to save the family who are being held hostage there. He is specifically focused on young Hannah (Scott Collins) who reminds him of his own daughter.

This film was apparently written as a Saw prequel, and it shows. The traps, and the thought behind their depravity, are reminiscent of that never-ending franchise. Arkin is likeable enough, and his plight is easy to empathise with – so the film readily casts him as hero (even though he’s actually a criminal, intent on robbing the family). Where it falls down is the lack of explanation: is The Collector collecting human beings (it’s suggested that he is)? If so, why?

There’s enough ingenuity in the booby-traps and menace in the bad guy, to make this a really good horror flick. The Collector himself has the potential to become a franchise, and I believe a sequel is afoot. This is a solid three-starrer, a fourth would have been possible with just a bit more background/motive.

David G Bennett

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