To be honest, I didn’t have high hopes for The Collector. Speaking as a man who gave up on the Saw franchise after number two (in name and nature), I don’t have a lot of time for torture-pon grot. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still got an old vhs of The Beyond I dig out once in a while, so I’ve nothing against ridiculously gratuitous splattering. I just prefer it when it serves the plot, rather than being the plot.Still, it was a quiet Friday and I’d managed to blag free tickets, so I figured I’d check it out – and I’m actually glad I did.
Director Dunstan worked alongside writer Patrick Melton on the aforementioned Saw franchise, as well as the ludicrous/idiotic Feast films, but here they manage to break away from by-the-numbers splatter and actually tie-in some serious questions aboout the nature of evil.
Josh Stewart is Arkin, a debt-ridden cat burglar breaking into an isolated and seemingly deserted house. But what’s this? That’s right readers! It isn’t deserted at all. The family who live there have been tied up about the place, and the perpetrator (Juan Fernández in full Leatherface mode) has set a series of bizarre, jigsaw-esque traps about the place. Hey -it could happen to anyone.
Credulity aside, it does open up a barrel of interesting moral worms, Arkin torn between the needs to rob, run or help the victims, and his internal conflict does wonders to spice up the otherwise overused home-invasion macguffin. And while the ‘torturous traps bit has been similarly overdone, there’s still enough invention on show here to provide some decent seat-jump moments (watch out for those bear-traps!).
...he knows when you've been sleeping..he knows when you're awake...
Combining two highly overused horror tropes and chucking in a stock loony in a bad mask shouldn’t work at all, but by cutting out any flab from the script and choosing to focus on the emotional dilemma as much as the flesh-ripping, the Collector drags itself out of the hostel for used gorno to take it’s rightful place as a lean and very mean chop-job.
Hollywood loves a good horror film, they always have. From films based on real life murders to alien invasions everyone loves to be scared in one way or another. However the recent slew of bad sequels and even worse remakes is a very new phenomenon and Hollywood appears to be doing rather well from these shambolic films as people flock to see a safe horror film.
While new to the mainstream these dodgy horror films have always been there dwelling in the sewers of the million dollar studios used to create the a-list movies you love, these are the b-movies and this is their time.
B-movies are cheap, badly made, unrealistic, jumpy, and at times very funny. I credit one man with the return of the b-movie and while it may have been slow he’s brought it into the main stream without you even realising it. His name is Sam Raimi. Yes I know he made Spiderman, Spiderman 2, and the shocking Spiderman 3, but look at the terrible humour in that, it’s all b-movie….
So there’s this sort-of sexy, sort-of spooooky girl yeah? And she’s needs a part time job. Now, if you have lank black hair, then obviously a creeeeeeepy mental institute would be your first choice too right?
I mean, I’m not exactly carrying all my hammers in one bag either, so I can see the appeal -free meds lying around, getting to lick Sarah Connors face, it’s the complete package…
Somewhere out there in movie fan land, there’s a hardcore group that dare not speak their name. I’m talking of course, about the Dracula: Dead and Loving It aficionados. Every night they sit in their care home, drooling and guffawing as Leslie Nielson falls face first down a staircase, a strange cloud of melancholy clouding the mood as they realise that, try as the Wayans Brothers may, there will never again be a vampire film that shit.
There’s no sign of the legendary Dario Argento as the curtain goes up on his latest, and after viewing this laughable thriller it’s not hard to see why he chose to avoid the attentions of the massed legions of gathered gore hounds. Indeed, FrightFest’s Alan Jones actually tells the audience they’ll need therapy after watching this, perhaps forgetting that laughter is the best medicine…
