THE COLLECTION

The Collection (18) 

Director: Marcus Dunstan

Screenplay: Marcus Dunstan, Patrick Melton

​Starring: Josh Stewart, Emma Fitzpatrick

Every great collector has a vision

“The Collection” is the 2012 sequel to the moderately successful horror “The Collector” from 2009. The original film depicted the shenanigans of a serial-killer (“The Collector”, obviously…) who practised home-invasion, advanced trap/mutilation technology (a la “Saw”), and a perverse need to kidnap at least one victim from each crime. Clad in a skin-tight, lace-tied mask, he was the archetypical slasher, whose face (and motives) was never made clear. The original film was mostly set in one location, and ended with the capture (and probable death) of the main protagonist Arkin O’Brien (Josh Stewart) by the seemingly indestructible villain. The film was actually the cinematic equivalent of a pub crawl, enjoyable at the time, but you couldn’t really recall the details the next morning and you weren’t in a great hurry to do it again. Nevertheless here’s the sequel with the original director (Marcus Dunstan), which goes straight to DVD in the UK although it had a theatrical release in the US.

The movie opens with the (unnamed) city and its citizens in panic as the previous actions of The Collector are being publicised by the media. Obviously though, this doesn’t stop teenagers acting like teenagers, and a small group head to a seedy night club to “party” (as I believe the US vernacular has it). The main focus here is Elena Peters (played by Anne Hathaway lookalike, Emma Fitzpatrick), who has sneaked out from under her Father’s over-protective gaze. It’s one of those nightclubs that don’t actually exist in real-life. Full of good-looking people, who dance as one in slow-motion. Not full of ugly people throwing up and sniffing drugs in the filthy toilets. Anyway, as Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars says; “It’s a trap!” The Collector is lurking in rafters and sets off a series of devices, which mows down, cuts, or squashes nearly all the kids. It’s the most OTT club-massacre scene since “Hellraiser 3” or “Blade”. From this, Elena is kidnapped by the collector, and taken to his lair. Meanwhile Arkin O’Brien (from the original film) is still alive, and escapes from the club in the ensuing carnage. Thinking he’s safe in hospital, Arkin’s bad luck continues as he is coerced into re-entering The Collector’s lair by a group of mercenaries, hired by Elena’s father. As they locate the building (an abandoned hotel), they creep into an absolute smorgasbord of horrors, corpses, and fatal traps. Who will survive?

As you can probably guess from that synopsis, credibility is not the film’s strongpoint. For a start, what was the deal with the Nightclub? Does The Collector own the place or something? How come nobody saw him put a combine harvester in the ceiling?  Also, when we see the inside of the hotel, it’s literally strewn with hundreds of bodies and victims! Piles of ‘em in some cases! Has he wiped out half the city’s population or something, and nobody realised? Just how crap is the local police force? At one point somebody lights a long fuse going to explosives like Wile.E.Coyote! All the better for the good guys to escape in time! It’s probably best not to think too much about the story …

An uncomfortable comparison came to me as I watched the film. The Collector is basically an Evil Batman! Stay with me here… A reliance on gadgets. An expert in martial arts fighting and weaponry. Ninja poses in the rafters. He even swings down on a pulley system, incapacitates three people, and swings up again. All that’s missing is a batarang! I kept expecting someone to say, “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” At one point he even runs towards the camera silhouetted in a spotlight, like a Schumacher-era Batman. I shit you not! Mind-boggling…

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Comic book comparisons and comedy bombs aside … There are some real nice visual flourishes in The Collector’s lair, which is actually called “Hotel Argento”. No prizes for guessing where some of the homages come from! Damien Hirst style pickled corpses are frozen in poses of unnatural beauty, and these are brilliantly utilised in the great fiery climax. Mutilated corpses in a mid-dissection state are seen in the background as almost throwaway references. In fact, the production design is of a very high standard throughout the film. The make-up effects and the gore scenes are also very nicely done, despite the odd splash of CGI-blood. A lot of fun is had as well, with the ingenious death-traps that show themselves, as the Scooby Doo crew of mercenaries creep around the building. It’s like a Haunted House attraction for grown-ups. Add some very impressive tracking shots of devices being sprung, and you’ve got a number of reasons why this is an enjoyable bit of horror hokum, even with the marks 

against it.

So, a nice little horror diversion, but you’ll probably forget about it as soon as you watched it. It’s that type of movie. I don’t think we’ll be seeing The Collector return anytime soon, but at least he had a decent send-off…

DVD Extras:

Alternative/Deleted scenes: An alternative death scene, which adds an interesting dimension to a leading character. An alternative closing credits scene, which they REALLY should have used instead of the generic rerun-of-the-gory-deaths that they went with. It really expands on the final scenes of the movie and adds a nice full stop to the story.
Five 4-minute segments on; Director’s “vision”, Special Effects, Stunts, Make-up, and Production design.

Not an outstanding slasher flick, or even particularly original, but it’s competently enough done. It’s saved from obscurity by some neat visual flourishes, and some very effective Argento-inspired imagery. Still can’t get that “Evil Batman” analogy out of my mind though…