The Collector Review

Interest: 5/10

Acting: 6/10

Storyline: 5/10

Traps: 6.5/10

Fights Guns or otherwise: 7/10

Excitement: 6.5/10

Horror: 5/10

Nudity: 6/10

Gore: 10/10

Logic: 5/10

The Collector is a horror thriller movie from 2009. It stars Josh Stewart, William Prael, Diane Ayala Goldner, and Jaun Fernandez, among many others. Run time is one hour and thirty-one minutes. Let’s see how this movie pans out, shall we?

Interest: The movie is slow, very very slow at the beginning, almost like a bad drama. It does pick up some, but it just drudges on, even during the horror parts. The pacing makes sense if the whole thing was based underwater, because everything moves at that pace.

Acting: The acting in the film is alright at best, Josh Stewart carries this whole movie almost solely in acting. Not to say anyone in particular is bad, but it seems very rigid pretty much all around, almost boring in some parts. And the whole movie is like this, a couple of moments show hope as to what it should have been in my opinion, but it never really even struggled to get to that point, it sat in the mediocrity that it was, and was pretty content with it.

Storyline: The storyline is pretty simple. A man owes his ex wife money, and also being an ex-con, breaks into a rich home he knows of. Someone else has also broken in and set up deadly traps for anyone to enter. Seems interesting enough in premise. It does well in executing the premise well. I’d almost say to simplify this more is “Saw: House Rules Edition”. It isn’t revolutionary as to what it does, but it does make it to the bar.

Traps: The traps are nearly all trip wired, but you get to see Rube Goldberg like machines take affect when they are tripped. but they are fun to watch, and to see how people get hurt and die from them. The traps though aren’t anything ingenious, and none of the deaths from it are unique I’d say. But they do what they need to, and help add tension.

Fights, Guns, Or Otherwise: There isn’t much fighting in my traditional usage of the category. There is a verbal fight, and some stabbings (The stabbings take no effort so eh) but the fight for your life is throughout the whole movie. Does it count? I for this specific movie, say yes, it’s different in this movie than most others because the thing you’re really fighting is a crazy mad man and his traps, so that you can live. And that is an important distinction between this movie and most. Most would have a trap or two but have bad guys along the way to have fights with, this movie is more about outsmarting the bad guys traps and him to live.

Excitement: Now from the previous category, you’d possible make the leap in thinking that this movie is exciting, and I’m sorry to say, but it isn’t. The pacing in the film is so slow that it doesn’t bring much, if any excitement to the movie at all.

Horror: On the horror side of things, I didn’t find this scary, but you might, where some sadistic man coming into your home and beating you and your loved ones up, setting traps everywhere and probably, inevitably, killing you all, because well that’s just his Tuesday night type of deal.

Nudity: There are a couple of scenes of nudity in the film, which do help it be not so boring, but doesn’t progress the story really at all. Which is fine I suppose, the story that does exist is okay, and everything else is pretty just not good in general.

Gore: Gore is pretty damn abundant in this film, which is possibly the one saving grace thing this really has besides some nudity. Everything from a mouth getting sewn shut, to a cat getting chopped in half, to a telephone with a booby trap stabbing your ear, everything has a repercussion, and does it hurt! Gore hounds will love this movie for at least the gore, but most of the rest of the movie falls pretty flat!

Logic: The logic in this movie until near the end was pretty solid, no glaring holes or anything I would poke to hard at, but at the end two lovebirds come back to the murder house, after not being there the whole movie (so also not knowing that bad shit is happening) and miss the killer, and miss the steps that you would blatantly see in your peripheral view, covered in nails to destroy your feet! I honestly can’t get though that. Or the tension of a steel cable brushing against your pant leg.

So do I suggest watching it? If you’re into super gory movies, like the idea, or hate the idea (you should face your fears in some way) Or want to rip on the movie I think it would be an acceptable thing, and hell you may even like it. But as a definite verdict, I’d probably say no you can skip it, it also has a sequel, which blows my mind, but eventually we will get to it, but it’s at best, feeling average. Score wise it got a 62%, which sounds good, but the devil is honestly in the details, or in some of the categories, the lack of them.