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Collector, The

EMAILPRINTFreestyle Releasing

Collector, The reviews
29
4.8 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 11 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Crime  |  Horror  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Marcus Dunstan
Patrick Melton

Directed by: Marcus Dunstan

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 31, 2009

Running Time: 88 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for pervasive sadistic bloody violence, language and some sexuality/nudity

Starring Josh Stewart, Karley Scott Collins, Juan Fernandez, Jabari Thomas, Colvin Roberson, and Michael Reilly Burke

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)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

70

Variety John Anderson

With both feet planted firmly on the sticky accelerator of the torture-porn vehicle, The Collector is a surprisingly stylish and confident high-concept thriller.

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50

Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona

Either you go for this sort of extreme, senseless gore or you don't. With its plot and lead performance, The Collector is, at least, an unusual specimen.

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50

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Making his directorial debut, Dunstan displays a knack for building suspense. And yet, weirdly, amidst all the requisite blood spray, one senses a reluctance on the filmmaker’s part to linger lovingly over the pierced skins and protruding entrails of the killer’s various victims.

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50

Film Threat Stina Chyn

The Collector’s destructive behavior enters the realm of the ridiculous before it ever touches the land of evil-badassness.

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42

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

For his directorial debut, The Collector, Dunstan streamlines the "Saw" concept slightly by silencing the killer and focusing more intently on a house that’s been converted into a jury-rigged deathtrap.

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30

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The Collector feels like the final, welcome nail in the bizarrely popular torture-porn coffin.

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30

Chicago Reader Staff (Not credited)

As the seconds tick down to midnight, Arkin becomes a reluctant hero trapped by a masked Collector in a maze of lethal invention--the Spanish Inquisition as imagined by Rube Goldberg--while trying to rescue the very family he came to rob.

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25

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The result is a sub-"Saw" knockoff that manages to be brutal yet monotonous, not to mention monstrously unpleasant.

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20

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

In the absence of a sturdy, plausible foundation on which to hook all those grisly bits, the film, originally a Dimension release, tends to play out more like a protracted "Saw" outtake reel.

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20

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

Offers agony in a vacuum, a villain without a motive and a hero with more personal problems than lines of dialogue.

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12

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Another helping of egregious slicing and slashing.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 4.8 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Trey W. gave it an8:
Awesome movie, With a small plot but still really good plot none the less and lots of gore. I would say this was one movie I really enjoyed. People who are rating it so low I do not know what your smoking or what kind of horror movie you think is good... please do not tell me you like the ring.

Iloz Z gave it a4:
The dilemma facing Arkin, to save both families or his own skin, is something not often seen in horror movie fare. It provides a catalyst for audience involvement that goes beyond vicarious body-count watching. When the Collector goes after the little girl, forcing Arkin to make difficult choices between physical safety and his conscience, it made me root for this home team to hit a home run. But all Dunstan and Melton can do is get stranded at first base. They dote on the bloody-hell messy parts of the movie, replacing most of the suspense with typical--for a psycho-butcher-torturer movie--outcomes. Closeup views of lip sewing, chisel to teeth, shears poised to snip a pliers-held tongue, carving a roast without the roast, and, really, just about every dire torture-gore situation and its outcome we now anticipate due to their overuse is here in lavish closeup. It is stylish, it is done well, but it has all been done before.

Chris gave it a0:
I once strapped a camera to my dog's back to see what a canine does in a twenty four hour time frame. As it turns out, my German Shepard is a far better writer than Mark Dunstan (the guy who created this sh*tty film). The Collector aka "How Not to Make a Movie" is by far the worst film of all time.

Upton K gave it an8:
For torture porn, this was fairly gripping. I left the theatre assaulted and a bit puzzled. There are a lot of unanswered questions, but realism is not something one expects while viewing a movie about an omnipotent killer who can out think their prey at every twist and turn. Very little of the plot makes sense. However, your eyes, ears and sense of the appropriate are so overwhelmed by the sound and editing technique employed - you don't have time to ponder much. It's on the ride home that you begin to ask yourself... what about...? And why did he.....? And how did they…? And by that point it's a little late. This is by no means a classic, but it sure killed an hour and a half of my life at lightening speed. As for this being an homage to Hitchcock? Really? I don't think so, bud. In what reality?

paul s gave it a3:
Boring, not a good movie at all.

Brad C gave it a9:
Grabs you by the throat and squeezes.

Robert S. gave it a10:
Scary, sick, awesome!!!

Read more user comments >

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