Reviews: The Collector (2009) Movie Review
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Action, Crime, Serial Killers
Subgenres: Gore, Survival, Featured Maniac, Home Invasion, Maniac, Torture
Where does The Collector (2009) stand among horror films? Our review examines the scares, pacing, and what makes it unique in the genre.
The Collector (2009) is an American horror thriller movie that left me thinking about life and how humans can be our worst nightmares. Director and co-writer Marcus Dunstan (Saw IV (2007), The Collection (2012), Saw V (2008)) did a marvelous job directing this masterpiece that was a thrilled tension ride throughout. The movie contains a golf club rigged with a trap that incapacitates people; a phone is rigged with a trap, windows that are boarded up and lined with razors and other bizarre traps. The Collector will send fear into the hearts of weak viewers although it has a very simple premise.
The Collector (Juan Fernandez - A Man Apart (2003), Necronomicon: Book of Dead (1993), Salvador (1986)) is a faceless killer that enjoys torturing people and killing for the fun of it, yes he does not have a heart/conscience. We are given flashbacks of the killer, and we learn or get to realize why he is so crazed. The Chase family decided to get a security system installed because they want to go away for the weekend so they think the security system and a trained-to-kill dog will protect their valuable possessions. Arkin O’Brien (Josh Stewart - Interstellar (2014), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Collection (2012)) is an ex-convict working as a security installation man. Arkin, however, has another agenda while working at the Chase family home. He plans on stealing from the family when they are away because the family has an extreme amount of valuables in their home including a ruby. Arkin is married and is doing the heist to pay off his wife’s debt to several loan sharks but also began liking the daughter, Hannah of the Chase family.
The Collector made me think how horrible humans can be as I watched this film I realize anyone can become a monster with the right amount of sad**tic things thrown at them. Imagine you land yourself in an environment full of engineered booby traps - what a nightmare that would be? The worst crossed my mind is as I think of a killer just invading a person’s home for fun and does not care for their precious lives. Madeline Zima, Michael Reilly Burke, Josh Stewart, Karley Scott Collins, and Andrea Roth did an excellent job with their performances although their screen times was minimal because they were the collector’s victims. I loved The Collector because it was an intense watch with awesome kills, well-done camera work and deaths resulting in a slaughter fest that might be too much for the average horror fans or non-horror fans.
Similar films like The Collector can be found in serial killer movies sub-genre(s), check them out for more movies like The Collector.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- The Collector Rating Scores
- Our Score: 8/10
- Overall Score: 5.42/10
- IMDB: 6.3/10
- MetaCritic: 2.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 2.9/10
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