The premise of The Collector is one of the most ingenious storylines devoted to a bloody horror film. A prominent and wealthy family has moved to the country, far removed from mainstream society. While the house is being worked on by a variety of carpenters, builders, handymen, and exterminators, our protagonist Josh Stewart scopes out the family's home for valuable jewels. Heroically, he promises his ex-wife and beautiful little daughter that he will buy their way out of trouble. This leads to the foolish decision to rob his employer's home. Ordinarily, since the family allegedly had been on vacation, with his skills at cracking safes, this plan would have worked flawlessly. Little does he realize that inside the house the poor family is already being tortured, mutilated, and eviscerated. The villain perpetrating these terrible crimes is the exterminator dressed like the character Machine from the movie 8mm. The only family member still free is the little girl. To add an even more interesting twist, Josh Stewart is somewhat of a superman. Rather than escaping when he had the chance, he remained behind to find the family's little daughter in order to rescue her at all cost.
As the action unfolds the monstrous murderer in the mask deploys traps throughout the house. These hazards include fish hooks, knives, sulfuric acid, and tripwires. Each family member is killed in a unique way reminiscent of the Saw series. The husband is tied in barbed wire and is gutted in at least 100 different areas until all of his limbs are swollen and he eventually bleeds to death. The wife's tongue is cut out her eyes are gouged. Meanwhile, the slutty older daughter arrives home scandalously with her lover. Believing the family to have left on vacation, she unwittingly enters the house only to have her breasts and head severed. Of course we are treated to one of the few bright moments in this sickeningly dark film, a very nice view of her double D’s. Once every family member with the exception of a little girl has been murdered, rather than deciding to escape, Josh Stewart finally finds the daughter and leads one of the most daring rescues ever witnessed in a film. No matter how much the villain tortures him he finds a way to prevent any harm from coming to the little girl. The monster manages to murder several police officers and eventually all three escape from the house. Our villain covertly pursues Josh Stewart who is strapped in an ambulance. He rams the med vehicle at full speed causing it to jack-knife. Stewart is taken into custody by the serial murderer and is made the new collection for the next series of killings. The only moment of this film in which somebody is not being mutilated is when the credits roll and we realize, that everyone is dead but at least the little girl survived. This movie is pure and simple blood, guts, and gore. Had I watch several of the aforementioned movies recently, The Collector would have seemed like a dragged out rip-off of those films. Instead as a stand-alone movie it is sick enough to be appealing, occasionally comical, and slightly frightening. It is not a jump out of your seat scary movie thriller, but it is a continuation of the theme of the remorseless, seemingly invincible mass murderer. Given the absence of any film like it out there currently I give it two very bloody thumbs up.
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