THE COLLECTOR
In this gore-heavy, logic-free
thriller, the talented Josh Stewart stars as Arkin, an ex-con turned handyman who
breaks into the remote Victorian home of his latest clients, only to discover
that the family isn’t on vacation, as planned, but are instead locked in the
basement, where a masked serial killer (Juan Fernández) is slowly torturing
them to death. Having written the last three Saw films, screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan are now
certified experts in traps and torture, and so it is that the killer, for
reasons that don’t make much sense, has rigged the house with sharp-edged booby
traps, with a heavy emphasis on knives, nails and fishhooks, all of which Arkin
must sidestep while trying to locate the family’s 8-year-old daughter. Making
his directorial debut, Dunstan displays a knack for building suspense. And yet,
weirdly, one senses, amidst all the requisite blood spray, a reluctance on the
filmmaker’s part to linger lovingly over the pierced skins and protruding
entrails of the killer’s various victims, a reticence that may prevent Dunstan from
helming a Saw flick of his own someday but which earns him here an infinitesimal bit of respect. (Chuck
Wilson)
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