For those of you who don't know, The Collection is actually a sequel to a little known horror movie that came out in 2009 called The Collector. It was helmed by Saw contributors Marcus Dunston and Patrick Melton. Now, these guys aren't exactly the Henry David Thoreau of horror, but they're not the Tyler Perry's of it either. They know how to please their target audiences. For me, there are two types of good horror movies. There's the slow, creepy, build-up suspenseful horror with lots of shock and awe moments that terrify you to your very core, but have little to no blood or gore. Early Paranormal Activity knew how to effectively do this as well as [very] early M. Night Shyamalan. These are the types of movies that are remembered. They're Psycho, and The Sixth Sense and Seven. Then, there's the other type, the category movies like The Collection and its predecessor fall into: the gory, blood-splattering, campy, high body count, type movies. Now, there are a LOT of these movies coming out recently. The first Saw film, which to this day I still defend as being one of the best horror movies of all time was able to do this, though that movie may slip a little bit more into the former category. But, it's sequels were pure torture-porn garbage put into existence only to make money and push the boundaries of what horrific death could be shown on a screen. I'm not talking about lazy (Captivity), greedy (Saw II-XXXVIII), and empty (House of Wax) films that fail to include anything reminiscent to a plot. I'm talking about entertaining, over-the-top films that not only provide everything a horror fan is looking for in a movie, but provides the utmost entertainment value for your dollar. Films like Evil Dead, Drag Me To Hell, Piranha 3D, My Bloody Valentine, and now The Collection fall into this category.
While it may be argued that The Collector is nothing but vacuous torture-porn, I tend to disagree. While there is a tremendous amount of carnage, there is also something that has been lacking in horror movies lately: creativity. The Collector tells the story of Arkin, a small-time crook working a renovation job at the home of a wealthy family. In debt, he decides that while the family is away for the night he is going to break into their home and steal from their safe. While in the house, the family is being tortured by The Collector, a masked man whose intentions are unknown. Because the Collector isn't aware of Arkin's presence, Arkin is able to sleuth around the house in an attempt to save the family. But, of course, it isn't that easy. The Collector has set up hundreds of deadly booby traps around the house and essentially turned it into a death maze that is the least easy obstacle to overcome. Pretty interesting story, no?
Well, The Collection pretty much begins where the first one leaves off. Arkin, the only soul ever taken by the Collector to escape is recruited by a team of mercenaries hired by a rich father whose daughter is the latest kidnap victim. Arkin leads the team to a large abandoned hotel which, if you haven't already figured out, is also booby trapped. The house traps in the first film look like cake compared to this death factory on steroids. While Duston and Melton don't waste much time dealing with minute things like character development or backstory, they do jump right in to the highest level of horror creativity I've seen in a long time. They've found ways to kill people better and grosser and more fantastically shocking than any horror movie in the past few years.
I went into the movie a little worried about a few things: one, the first movie made little to no money and garnished almost no recognition whatsoever, so I was worried that a smaller budget would lend to a cheesier and lacking sequel. Fear not, horror fans. What's lacking in budget is made up with in originality and ingenuity on the filmmaker's part. My other fear was that now that there's a new established horror killer being given a second film that the film wouldn't end the way the audience would like in order to make way for a cavalcade of second and third rate sequels directed by straight-to-DVD hacks. This was also not the case. I'm not going to ruin anything for anyone, but even if there are ten more sequels, this film is able to stand alone on its own two feet.
While it's unfair to give this movie a solid 'A' on the gradescale, because that would be saying it's just as good as Lincoln or Argo, which it really isn't. But, what it does is exceed the expectations for the type of movie it is in the genre it descends from. It's tense, it's scary, it's fun, it's bloody, and it's one of the most entertaining horror flicks to be released in a while. If you're a fan of the genre, there's not much that The Collection won't give you, other than an incredibly fun night at the movies.
B+
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