Movie Review: "The Collector" (2009)

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Movie: "The Collector"
Director: Marcus Dunstan
Year: 2009
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

A handyman by day/thief by night breaks into the home of a wealthy customer in the hopes of paying off his wife's loan shark debt. Once inside, he finds out he is not alone as a psychopath has rigged the house with deadly booby-traps and has taken the family for his collection.

I guess we know what Kevin McCallister does now that he's all grown up.

"The Collector" is directed by Marcus Dustan. It is a disturbing slasher home invasion flick that is sort of like if "Home Alone" met "Hostel" and had a twisted, messed up baby. It stars Josh Stewart as Arkin, a handyman and burglar who breaks into the home of a wealthy customer he believes is on vacation. He hopes to steal a large jewel they have in their safe and use it to pay of his wife's loan shark debt. He breaks into the house and all seems good at first, but after a short time, he hears a noise and quickly realizes he isn't alone. Not only is he not alone, but he soon discovers the house is loaded with deadly booby-traps, a different one in every single room of the mansion he's robbing.

We honestly think the filmmaker watched "Home Alone" and wanted to take it to the nth degree. The ultimate result is "The Collector" has been given the full blown Eli Roth treatment. Marcus Dustan has managed to make an outrageously gruesome movie loaded with blood, guts, and gore. When we say guts, we mean it. There's literally a scene where one character is completely disemboweled and has their intestines pulled out onto the floor, you know, fun stuff like that. The character of the Collector himself is absolutely terrifying in its simplicity, super creepy with his twisted leather mask and horrible, sometimes glowing eyes. As Arkin tries to get out of the house, he faces obstacle after obstacle in this mansion rigged with all sorts of different things that can kill him in an instant. Eventually, we do get to see some of these booby-traps put to full use, and these scenes are horrific and really violent.

If you wanted to pick "The Collector" apart and point out all of the plot holes and unanswered questions outside of its sheer mayhem, it wouldn't be hard to do, but for what it's worth and for what it is, this movie is very successful as a hyper-slasher. It aims to gross out the audience with its overabundance of blood and gore and guts and gross, and that it certainly does this effectively. For fans of splatter-house slasher flicks, this is one worth checking out.

My Rating: 7/10
BigJ's Rating: 7/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 30%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?
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One year ago, we were being scared by: "The Devil's Rejects"

Two years ago, we were being scared by: "The Monster Squad"

Three years ago, we were being scared by: "Jack Brooks Monster Slayer"