THE CRITIC-AL LIST
Reviews by Alan Jones
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

Salt
The Expendables
The Last Airbender
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Inception
Predators
The Twilight Saga:Eclipse
Toy Story 3
Hot Tub Time Machine
Iron Man 2
Repo Men
The Collector
Clash of the Titans
Shelter
How To Train Your Dragon
Kick-Ass
Shutter Island
Alice In Wonderland
The Crazies
Case 39
The Wolfman
Legion
The Lovely Bones
Black Death
Daybreakers
Avatar
Ninja Assassin
The Descent: Part 2
Amer
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Box
2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The Rise OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Marcus Dunstan. Starring Andrea Roth, Daniella Alonso, Josh Stewart, Madeline Zima, Michael Reilly Burke. Horror, USA, 90 min.

It’s no surprise the directorial debut of Marcus Dunstan, who with co-writer Patrick Melton scripted the FEAST trio and the last three SAW movies, hews close to the torture game scenarios of the latter franchise.

For their spec script THE COLLECTOR was originally envisioned as a SAW prequel, one explanation for Jigsaw’s serial-killing career. When that idea didn’t fly in the overall trajectory scheme, the duo re-conceived it as more of an unusual home invasion chiller in THE STRANGERS mode, with a SEED style psycho mentality, alongside its cat-and-mouse brutality. The result is a pretty classy scare machine that moves like lightning, doesn’t waste time on pointless exposition and tosses some genuinely tense moments into its primal fear exploitation.  Not to be confused in any way with the same titled chunk of Swinging Sixties suspense starring Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar, THE COLLECTOR here is someone who puts people who outlive his death traps into a red trunk until the next clever survivor comes along. Is that going to be handyman Arkin (Josh Stewart, LAW ABIDING CITIZEN)? The ex-con needs cash to pay off a loan shark threatening his estranged wife and has been casing the house of jeweler Michael Chase (ubiquitous TV character actor Michael Reilly Burke). But when he breaks in to raid the safe for a rare gem, he soon learns a masked maniac has beaten him to it and is relentlessly torturing the entire Chase family. The question is does he grab the precious stone and get out fast? Or does he try and save the people he came to rob and risk becoming the killer’s prized possession? Navigating the knives fixed to the chandelier, the acid covering the bedroom floor, the fishhooks dangling at eye level and the bear traps in the dining room means avoiding discovery will hardly be the issue as Arkin continually puts his life on the line while those around him can barely function through total fright at their seemingly hopeless predicament. The fact THE COLLECTOR 2 has already been announced means the sting in the last five minutes of this fiendish novelty item can be second-guessed. But the suspenseful journey to it through the now obligatory grungy lighting, stock techno soundtrack and extreme mutilation via pliers, chisel and needle and thread is chopped finger-licking good. Okay, how The Collector (played by Juan Fernandez, only once glimpsed minus mask) could extensively trip-wire and booby-trap the Chase house so quickly and efficiently is one of those puzzlements it shares with the SAW movies. Yet you don’t really think about that until after the maniacal mastermind has pulled off his last coup de grace.

Yes, THE COLLECTOR is more of the same in the recycled serial-killer chic gross-out genre. However, Dunstan ensures its slick, sick and visceral credentials remain intact throughout and he doesn’t give you one second to relax shaking on the edge of your seat.

Alan Jones

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2010
__________________________________________________________