User reviews

I rented this so I could have some background before watching the sequel. "The Collector" was a jumbled mess. Clumsy and inept character introductions, poor acting, mumbled lines, often the darkness was simply too dark to see what was going on. If this was "horror" then at no time did the masked dude scare me. He was actually quite silly looking. And many of the traps were asinine, like something a 5th grader would come up with. Not scary, not thrilling, not even believable. And in the middle of all this, enter some criminal element thread that was completely disjointed from the plot. It was just cut in there, clumsy to the point of painfulness. Again, a prime opportunity for extremely poor acting and the director didn't disappoint. I admit I liked the first "Saw" movie, but none of the rest of them. I guess I'm just not a "traps" sort of movie fan. I'm a fan of solid characters and dialogue, strong plot development, believable situations, etc. Ya know, movie stuff. I tend to hold my nose and cut short films like this. Indeed, I turned it off somewhere in the middle, or perhaps two thirds of the way? I don't know. I stopped paying attention at that point. My crackers and peanut butter became more interesting. Let the fanboys have their "Saw" copy. I'm just done with it.

It actually took me 3 separate viewings to finish this movie as it is easily the most mind numbingly frustrating movie I have ever seen. The movie was well made, well acted, well filmed, bad guy was great, but... I literally yelled at the screen three times due to the absolute stupidity of a story that made none, zero, zilch sense. How does a guy leave a house with no threats and come back maybe 4 hours later and the house has been booby trapped like the set of Saw. Also, why would it be booby trapped in the first place if the adults had already been captured. I know that as viewers we are supposed to suspend belief but this movie goes to far. I felt like not only did I need to suspend my beliefs but also my entire intellect. This is an extremely dumbed down and if you are someone who wants even a modicum of possible realism, look elsewhere. Although I gave it a 3, it would have gotten a 6 as an aforementioned well made movie but I deducted half because only those half baked will enjoy it in its present form.

When the Chase family moves to an isolated house in the middle of nowhere in Detroit, Arkin (Josh Stewart) is hired to fix the windows and the doors. Later he meets his daughter and his wife that has a debt with dangerous sharks and needs money, but his week payment is not enough to pay her debts. Arkin plots to heist the safe of Michael Chase (Michael Reilly Burke) during the night to raise the necessary money. However, when he arrives in the house, he finds that a sadistic criminal has imprisoned the family and planted traps everywhere. Arkin seeks a way out of the deadly house to save his life.

"The Collector" is a stupid, gruesome and sick flick of a violent and sadistic sub-genre of horror that is becoming popular for some viewers. The story is flawed, incoherent and imbecile, and surprisingly this movie is overrated in IMDb and with good reviews, some of them visibly fake by simpleton users with only one review in IMDb. There many incoherent and ridiculous situations like, for example, how could the Collector put all those gadgets and traps in the house in a couple of hours with the family at home; or when Arkin succeeds in leaving the house but returns to rescue Hannah in an absurd attitude; or why Hannah decides to show up only when Arkin is outside the house; or how the police officer could be surprised by the dog having a gun in his hand; or how could the invulnerable Collector survive to the chandelier with knives and then attack the ambulance. I believe I could prepare a long list of foolish and idiotic attitudes. The cinematography is above average and the music score with Bauhaus is very dark. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "O Colecionador de Corpos" ("The Collector of Corpses")

This film had a lot potential but it's a mess. Seeing as this story started out as a SAW script, you can see where it went wrong. The trap house doesn't make sense here. Who and what are the traps for when the Collector has everyone captive? The big problem is the logic and logistics of the story. Somehow one man took a family captive and in a few hours, he set up a host of traps, installed new locks, tortured the parents etc. Also Josh Stewart manages to break into the house and not see/encounter any of the traps until he tries to leave. He never leaves a drop of blood behind despite bleeding from his hand profusely. The collector should have heard him running around the house. It was lucky the house was full of doors. Why did everyone keep walking on the squeaky floorboard. It was easy to miss. Where was the little girl hiding? And what exactly was the Collector collecting?

Overall, the film is heavily stylized from the opening and closing credits to the heavy sound design that smothers some scenes. There is an interesting storyline but if the makers had let go the story's Saw origins, it could have been an interesting movie.

Crap Story, Crap Editing, Crap Acting - It is NOT a 6+ rated movie - In all reality it is about a 5.2 (I give it a 3 myself) Very Sci-Fy channel if you know what I mean. It's basically a Saw rip off, lots of gore based around a silly storyline and that's about it - if you have nothing else to watch then its OK but don't expect anything new here. It seems to be an issue with IMDb right now - in the past a 6.2 movie was OK, now a 6.2 is way over rated (don't get me started on over rated movies please - bloody Batman scores how much? Good movie but not that good)

It was good to see Shooter McGavin though!

Can't believe how bad this film was. It has some tense moments but rather rely on clever film making to create this atmosphere it belongs in this film purely because as the audience we are made only to aware that if the collector should find someone snooping among or messing his plans up he will torture them in horrific ways that should be unpleasant to watch. Mpw i'm not the easily offended type and the violence in this film didn't upset me in anyway, but for gods sake if you are going to have this sort of violence in a movie have a reason for it!!! Who is the collector anyhow? I mean, what really is his purpose? The ending was awful and the alternate ending quite literally the most stupid i have seen, although i do presume this was meant to be funny?

If like me your curious to see this movie, if only to see if what you think it will be, it is in fact just that, by all means give it a go, but its some of the most lousy film making i have seen

This movie is a psychopath's fantasy. I looked away multiple times due the senseless cruelty. It could have been a good movie had it not went down the direction of blood and gore, which I seem to remember was common theme in horror thrillers around the time this movie was released, with the likes of Saw and Hostel having been popular for a number of years.

If you enjoy watching people mutilated and are a sadistic person in nature, then you'll likely derive pleasure from this movie. You'll be glued to the screen, completely emotionless and stone faced.

The only reason I gave this movie more 2 than stars is simply because the acting was good as a whole, and there were some interesting ideas that were implemented well. This is more a what could have been type of movie. Remove the gore and be more creative and have a plotline designed for emotionally healthy people. Rather than living out the fantasies of a mentally ill and all around sick person better known as a psychopath.

What's so bad about "The Collector"? I mean come on! The premise is intriguing and ostensibly viable: Arkin, an ex-convict trying to get back on the straight and narrow, works as a handyman for the lovable Chase family. When he his wife reveals that she needs money to pay off some loan sharks. Arkin is forced to rob the Chases to get the money. Just one problem. The Chases are a bit busy being tortured to death by a psycho in their home, which has been booby trapped with a squirm-inducing variety of death traps.

Sounds awesome! Even the acting is generally great! Josh Stewart is sympathetic and believable as Arkin, and young Karley Collins does a great job as Hannah.

The death traps and kills are interesting and complex, making even the most gruesome dispatching a joy to watch.

Brandon Cox's cinematography is masterful, giving the film a shimmering, modern look, deftly evoking tension from scene to scene (if somewhat heavy on visual stereotypes.) Hell, even director Marcus Dunstan shows he knows what he's doing. He builds tension for a painfully long time before ever triggering the first horrible booby trap.

"The Collector" is sick, slick, and pretty to look at! So...what's wrong with it? Well for starters the story stops making sense after the first 30 minutes. I wish I could rattle off a list of the ridiculous leaps of logic and poorly thought out plot points, but it would give too much away.

Trust me, by the end of the movie the characters will be behaving so nonsensically you'll wonder if you're really watching a Saturday morning cartoon.

You can have all the fancy cinematography and special effects in the world, but it doesn't make a good movie. It's pretty hard to f*ck up a good screenplay and make a bad movie. But it's impossible to make a good movie out of a terrible screenplay.

3 out of 10 for being an insipid piece of torture porn.

For handyman and ex-con Arkin, a quiet home and a family on vacation is an "opportunity". For inside the house lies a jeweler's safe, and inside the safe is a gem – his only hope for repaying a debt to his ex-wife and keeping what's left of his family intact. Unfortunately for Arkin, inside the house is also a box containing the latest addition to a collection catalogued in blood, bone and tears. As the seconds tick down to midnight, Arkin becomes a reluctant hero trapped by a masked "Collector" in a maze of lethal invention. (Freestyle Releasing)

THE COLLECTOR is such a chore to watch through, which is unfortunate seeing how great the premise really is. Let's starts with the minor problems: First of all, you get this MTV-techno-style music that plays throughout the film that annoys more than it creates suspense. Secondly, the sound mixing/effects is really awful, and I do mean awful. Okay, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The real problem of the film is the absurdity of all it. The characters' actions are absurd and stupid. The traps themselves are absurd. The film is like an insult to intelligence. Oh, and let's not forget the classic "dog that's invisible until it attacks you." I would really want a dog like that if it exists in real life. I could not fathom any part of the film. I also didn't find Josh Stewart's performance to be convincing at all, let alone the other actors in here.

And the violence and gore is really nauseating to watch, but it's sure to satisfy the horror fans out there even though the film really isn't horrifying. Overall, there's very little that I can recommend from THE COLLECTOR. The plot is as thin as ice and there are plenty of ridiculous and laughable moments, especially an ending to top it all. THE COLLECTOR seems to be more of an exercise of displaying "inventive" and gruesome traps than a story with characters we'd want to root for. *sigh* The film had so much potential.

I was hoping this was going to be good, no... There's no plot; everyone is there for the sake of being there. It's fun the first and second kill, and then the movie just gets boring. I really was not enjoying this, there isn't a character you can really care for here. Why, because none of them have depth. Somebody wanted to remake the old-school horror slasher films and make it into a SAW house intrusion. The acting was okay, and the gore effects, some of which were decent. If you are a fan of stuff like Wrong Turn or Seed, rock on. You need a script and depth in characters in order for a film to be good, or at least make it interesting and fun to watch like The Hills Have Eyes, SAW, Terrifier, Candyman or Hostel did... They prolonged the same idea, and it gets really repetitive and not fun.

There's nothing new as I say: If you see Halloween once, you have seen all Slasher films.

One of those franchise SAW wannabe but fall flat onto it's own trap. Fortunately I came here for the gore.