Director: Marcus Dunstan
MPAA Rating: R
Film Pulse Score: 5/10
The Collection is a sequel to 2009’s The Collector, and if you’re like a lot of people including my girlfriend, and Film Pulse contributor Todd Willcox, you probably weren’t aware of the existence of the first one, or even this one for that matter. I would consider the first film to be an extremely underrated and under-appreciated horror film, and like many sequels, The Collection doesn’t live up to the original. That isn’t to say it’s a bad film, it just falls victim to many clichéd horror tropes that the first one so craftily avoided.
The Collection picks up directly after the events of the first film, with Arkin (Josh Stewart) escaping the clutches of the sadistic serial killer known as the collector. After kidnapping a girl named Elena (Emma Fitzpatrick), Arkin is persuaded into joining a group of hired guns to hunt down and kill the collector and save Elena.
The film starts off with a bang involving a shocking car accident and a particularly horrific scene involving rotating spikes and an entire club full of adolescents. From the beginning, the viewer is made aware that the stakes have been raised, and in turn, the body count as well. For gore hounds, this is right up their alley, with gallons of blood spilled, and many, many gruesome deaths.
The thing that I really enjoyed about the first film was the unconventional story. The idea of a thief breaking into someone’s house, only to find the entire place filled with deadly traps and a serial killer roaming around was a really neat concept. It felt almost like a horror version of Home Alone, only instead of Kevin McCallister, bonking you over the head with a paint can, it’s a sadistic killer who hangs thousands of fishhooks in dark rooms. The sequel brings the trap concept over, but this time they are bigger and more elaborate. As the rescue team attempts to navigate through an abandoned hotel that the collector uses as his lair, they must endure many awful death-dealing devices that seem to be in every corridor and room.
It’s the layout of this labyrinth that brings the first of several issues to light with this film. The bland and typical horror movie layout of the hotel is unrealistic and feels stale after how many Saw movies that had the exact same locale. It never felt like the survivors were traversing an actual hotel, but rather a building specifically designed to kill people.
The traps located throughout the hotel were nothing overly complicated like something you would see in a Saw film, but that was actually somewhat refreshing. Seeing conventional methods of killing people like bear traps and spikes somehow made the film feel more real and visceral. The only big problem came up when the team encountered what appeared to be zombie pets of the collector. This was an unneeded addition and made everything feel too over the top.
Visually, the film looks good with the exception of the hotel itself, for reasons previously mentioned. The cinematography is surprisingly well done, with some great camera angles, and slow motion shots used in just the right places. When the action ramps up, the camera gets a bit too frantic, but it’s nothing major, and is only a minor quibble.
All the characters in the film were fairly typical and one dimensional with the exception of Arkin. In addition to being more fleshed out than any of the other players, he evokes the most empathy with the viewer. From the beginning we’re rooting for him to get through this unscathed. He is also the most resourceful of the bunch, actually using his head to assess the situation and craft a plan.
Much like Saw 2, The Collection tries to broaden the mythology of the story, but as a result, produces something with all the flair of the first, without the charm. It’s extremely violent and incredibly tense at times, and that’s enough for a recommendation, just don’t expect this to reinvent the horror wheel.
