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Title: The Collector (2009)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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William Prael | ... | Larry Wharton |
| Diane Ayala Goldner | ... | Gena Wharton | |
| Juan Fernández | ... | The Collector | |
| Josh Stewart | ... | Arkin | |
| Michael Reilly Burke | ... | Michael Chase | |
| Andrea Roth | ... | Victoria Chase | |
| Karley Scott Collins | ... | Hannah Chase | |
| Madeline Zima | ... | Jill Chase | |
| Haley Pullos | ... | Cindy (as Haley Alexis Pullos) | |
| Daniella Alonso | ... | Lisa | |
| Patrick Rizzotti | ... | Bowling Ball Cleaner | |
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Jayme Suzonne Riser | ... | Bar Dancer |
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Krystal Mayo | ... | Bar Dancer (as Krystal Dawn Mayo) |
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Michele Diane Pate | ... | Bar Dancer |
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Nicole Antranette Fisher | ... | Bar Dancer |
When the Chase family moves to an isolated house in the middle of nowhere in Detroit, Arkin 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 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. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
An ex-con, desperate to help pay his ex-wife's debts, breaks into the seemingly deserted house of his employer, only to find that he isn't alone: a twisted nut-job in a gimp mask has taken the owner and his wife captive and has littered the building with deadly traps.
The masked killer in The Collector has got to be one of the most organised and productive psychos in movie history. In one evening, he not only takes prisoner and tortures a married couple, but he also finds time to install numerous booby traps in their mansion, ranging from simple 'bear traps on the living room floor' to the more complex 'accidentally touch this filament and a chuffing great blade will swing down and cause you much pain'. I don't know about you, but it takes me the best part of a day to put up a bloody shelf.
The thing that really puzzles me, though, is why he bothers with all of these devices in the first place since he's already trapped most of the family (the youngest daughter is hiding in one of the many rooms), and the oldest daughter (played by buxom babe Madeline Zima, who kindly provides the requisite topless scene) surely wouldn't represent much of a problem when she returns from her evening out with her boyfriend. Still, without the traps there wouldn't be much of a film, and since I had a lot of fun watching the characters meet their gruesome fates via various ingenious means, I'm willing to be a little forgiving about both lack of logic and motive.
It's clear that what matters most to director Marcus Dunstan is not explaining why and how his killer does what he does, but rather that his film creates a palpable sense of dread—which it does—and that people die horribly— which they do. Dunstan successfully builds a decent amount of suspense and atmosphere and sure doesn't hold back on the graphic stuff, delivering plenty of moments that'll be particularly uncomfortable viewing for the more squeamish of movie-goers: amongst the gory treats we get a delightfully bloody death by bear-trap, a disembowelled body, finger chopping, impalement on spikes, fish hooks in the face, a mouth being sewn closed, and a cat slowly dissolved in acid before being sliced in half!
And since there's nothing quite like a half-melted moggy being bisected by a window rigged with a guillotine, I'm happy to—despite the flaws in the narrative—rate The Collector a pretty decent 6.5/10, rounded up to 7/10 for IMDb.