The Collector Movie Review!

Last minute renovations are being made on a home prior to the owners leaving on a family vacation.  Josh Stewart stars as Arkin, one of the laborers assigned to work on the odds and ends.  While making small repairs on the home, Arkin builds a tentative friendship with the youngest daughter.  It is this time spent at the house that we find out the nature of Arkin: he is intelligent, resourceful, observant and kind.  It is after he leaves work for the day and visits his daughter and estranged wife that we learn he is also an ex-con who would do anything for his family, including robbing the home of the people he worked for in order to pay off his ex-wife’s gambling debts.

The job is simple: break into the home while the family is gone on vacation, steal the precious gem and leave before anyone is the wiser.  What Arkin doesn’t know, is that someone else has intentions for the Chase family that are anything but simple.

The Collector brings some of the basics back to the horror genre while keeping in line with the current trend for the splatter gore, or “torture-porn” as it’s more readily named,  sub-genre.  Written and directed by creators of the Saw series, The Collector builds suspense and lends an air of mystery to the movie that others of it’s ilk seem to lack.  Set only within the confines of the house, the viewer follows Arkin as he tries to remain hidden from the killer and help the family also trapped within all while trying to avoid the various traps that are everywhere.

Many reviewers get lost in the technicalities of this film and try to bring logic to what is obviously illogical.  My best recommendation for any horror movie watcher is to turn the lights off, sit back, immerse yourself in the fantasy and enjoy the film for everything it has to offer.  This one is a definite keeper and one I intend to watch multiple times.