Directed by Marcus Dunstan
Written by Marcus Dunstan &
Patrick Melton
The Collection is, at least for me, the long awaited sequel to one of the finest horror films of the last decade, The Collector. Which was a stripped down, no frills, character based horror film centered on the petty thief, Arkin (played by the underrated Josh Stewart), who is in serious debt, and is forced to rob his new Employer's mansion, but soon discovers a second criminal has already infiltrated the house with booby traps, holding the family captive. Arkin is then forced to decide whether he's going to escape with his life and the money or save the family. He decides to play hero and save them. Thus, we have... The Collector.
Now The Collection is pretty much a sequel to The Collector, like Aliens was a sequel to Alien. The Collector was a character piece with a decent amount of thrills and chills. The Collection is an action piece with non stop blood and gore and a body count that would make Hershell Gordon Lewis proud.
Now the premise of The Collection centers on the young character of Elena (played by Emma Fitzpatrick from The Social Network and In Time), who, along with her two friends, head to an underground club to go dancing. You know. One of those scary clubs where some tattooed guy with way too many piercings answers the door and asks for a password?
The film takes absolutely no time at all to get to the action. They have a very cool intro to the wild club. And before you know it, BAM! The Collector unleashes his horrifying booby traps inside the club and unloads on all the unlucky club goers.
Elena is eventually kidnapped by The Collector, thrown in his crate, and taken to his layer. This is where the film connects to the original. Where Elena's rich father (played by Shooter McGavin himself, Christopher McDonald) blackmails Arkin to help him and a set of elite mercenaries rescue Elena from the Collector's layer.
Thus... we have our popcorn movie. Mercenaries bust in with their enormous machine guns and bad things start to happen.
Now The Collection is in by no means, a great film. But it sure is a fun time at the movies and definitely wildly entertaining. I didn't expect much going into a film like this, but what I did respect is that the sequel was written/directed by the same fellows who created the original. Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, who created the Feast franchise and even wrote a few Saw sequels. However, I believe, The Collector to be the finest, most mature film they've ever written.
The Collection is pretty much Saw on meth. It's action packed, never skips a beat. Some of the dialogue is laughable. A couple characters are ridiculously over the top. The climax is quite cartoonish, and several moments make you wonder, "What the hell were you thinking???"
But you know what? I enjoyed it. Is it better than the first? Not by a long shot, nor did it want to be. Dunstan and Melton really just wanted to have fun with this one and make a completely different kind of a movie, which is totally fine with me, if it's done well. And, in my opinion, this one was.
Horror movies were my entry into movie loving, so I'll respect any R rated horror movie that keeps me thirsting for more. I look forward to the third one in the series, The Collected.
Sincerely,
Filmboy
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"That's the problem. It's hard to release an NC-17 anywhere right now. It's like you don't have access to theatres to many multiplexes. And I understand that cuts had to be made to my movie." (On his debut film, High Tension) - Alexandre Aja
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