The Collector

Sometime Saw screenwriter Marcus Dunstan moves up to directing duties with The Collector, a film with a heavy passing resemblance to that particular franchise. Unsurprisingly, the film suffers from the same faults as the recent crop of Saw films in that gore features prominently over story. This is actually a shame, as this had the potential to be a nasty little shocker, but all tension disappears fairly early on once the claret starts to flow. Things get off to a promising start though with a neat nervy opening and an effective visual and audio assaulting credit sequence. We then are introduced to one of the main characters of the story, Arkin (Josh Stewart), an ex-con who due to a convenient plot device decides to burgle a rich families secluded house whilst they are away. He gets a shock though when a shadowy figure known as The Collector also enters the house and Arkin soon finds himself in a literal house of pain. To say anymore would be to spoil the somewhat ludicrous plot, but if you’re a fan of torture traps designed to maim and kill (Head in a bear-trap? Yes please!) you’ll be in for a treat, so to speak. Unfortunately, the aforementioned plot is a major sticking point. Obviously you suspend disbelief as much as you can when you’re watching a film but this is so implausible due to the countless plot holes it just becomes frustrating. Someone like Alexandre Aja may have done something better with this. Instead we’re left with a film that is somewhat unfairly dumped into the torture porn category, and despite Stewart’s decent performance, it doesn’t do itself many favours all the way up until the annoying and predictable denouement.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
After a promising start, this sadly gets worse minute by minute. Things don’t bode well for the mooted sequel. Rating: 4/10.