SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 212 - The Collector (2009)

[MusterX]

For a horror/late night slasher film, 10/10. I remember as a kid waking up in my room at 2 am watching crazy shit like this on the local horror movie presentation, I think it was night flight, loved them. This movie was awesome but when the little girl was involved to be saved I had to fast forward almost to the end. I have a kid about that age, too close to home.

Yea, I have a 13 year old daughter. Its made me realize I would fight armed robbers to save her. You want me to fight a freak serial killer because its the right thing to do? Nope, not happening. You put my daughter in it, well, I guess its to the death now.

 

[Bullitt68]

Robert Wisdom [...] is as close to a mini-version of Marsellus Wallace as you can get. The top photo is Wisdom, the bottom 2 are Ving Rhames as Marsellus Wallace. In the bar scenes they even used the same red lighting as Pulp Fiction.

Now this is an observation that warrants one of @europe1's patented BJ Penn head nods.

 

[HARRISON_3]

Shit, I'm in the minority here.

Thought it was terrible.

Saw meets Home Alone with wayyy too many cliches.

Sucks because I wanted to like it, as it's been on my radar for a while.

 

[europe1]

@europe1, is it just me or does he have a kind of Alan Ladd vibe? I always think of Alan Ladd whenever I see Stewart. This won't sound like a compliment to either of them, but it's the best way I know to describe what I see: They both, Stewart especially, have this way about them that's as if they're always on heroin or something. It's like they hear, talk, and move a couple of beats behind everyone else, like the world is going on all around them but they're in slow-motion. Stewart would've been right at home in '40s and '50s noir films. And The Collector is a great role for him, a down-and-out dude who is forced to rise to the occasion.

I'd certainly agree that Stewart has this heroin-look to him. The squinted eyes. The dampened expressions. But I don't think he compares with Ladd very much at all. Ladd came across as more pained and introverted. This dude just looks spaced out.

Honestly, I'm kinda shocked that you stomped right into this thread and started praising Stewart since I thought he was one of the film's problems. At first, I thought he might be doing something interesting with his performance, acting a bit emotionally haggard early-on to contrast with the torture-porn scenario. But overall... he just didn't come across as having much of a reaction to me. Just acting slightly scared while being spaced. It really didn't register with me.

No, what ambush is saying is that the exterminator who gives Arkin the thumbs up is the Collector. Just like Arkin, his inside track on the family and the house was working on the crew.

I gotta say that this is a delectable piece of irony the film has got going for it. The burglar rat encounters a bigger, meaner rat. <45>

The opening credits and sound track had a very Se7en feel to it. The way the wife injected botox into her forehead standing in her own living room

Yeah, I was kind of baffled as to why they would shoot such a disturbing scene with the wife. The husband also kinda seems a bit hawkish early-on, as if he was hiding something. I suppose it was just a red herring so that they could pull the rug from under you when the real villian showed up and the family proved to be innocent victims.

When Arkin was driving his truck to do the robbery it was filmed from over the truck and the trees surrounding the road were a little blurry and obscured by rolling fog giving an impression that Arkin was driving into another realm, or something unexpected.

Ending - aside from the guy running infront of all the cop cars and almost killing himself

Yeah that's one of those classical: "c'mon movie why you gotta get stupid right at the ending?"

And like Saw, The Collector might also be inspired by Beyond the Seventh Door.

Sir! This is the SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB!

In here, we only accept ONE inspiration for both Saw and the Collector. And that's Vincent Price's splendid The Abominable Dr. Phibes!

Thought it was terrible.

Saw meets Home Alone with wayyy too many cliches.

Have you seen the alternate ending?

I want you to know this 100% real and is included with the Blu-ray release

Spoiler: Alternate ending video

That's pretty hilarious but they MUST have shoot it as a joke. I mean, there is a ton of stuff after that segment. Including high-end stunts like the Ambulance crash.

Why hasn't anyone mentioned the Ambulance crash until now anyhow!? That shit was wicked! The way the medic's body goes airborne alongside all the fluttering pieces of paper was really breathtaking.

 

[Yotsuya]

In here, we only accept ONE inspiration for both Saw and the Collector. And that's Vincent Price's splendid The Abominable Dr. Phibes!

 

[HARRISON_3]

There was a nice set of titties, tho.

 

[Zer]

Sorry I'm late yet again guys I suck

I've really been out of the genre (As in both horror and torture porn) probably since A Serbian Film a decade ago. That's not me having issues with the genre I've just been out of the movie scene in general. I enjoyed the Hostel films back in the day (A Serbian Film was dreadful - not offensive or anything just a badly executed flick IMO) as well as gore fests likes Event Horizon or Dead Alive (Plus that spate of French gorefests like Inside) so I was interested to watch this and get back into the scene a little bit

First off it seemed to breeze through initial setup which I had no problem with and it gained early momentum and intrigue by doing this. Started expecting shit to get nasty at any moment and for it to rush into the splatter. But it really flubs this with an overlong, boring stealth/safe cracking sequence and the intrigue quickly turned into impatience and you look back thinking this time could've been better used to better establish the characters and setting, both of which end up feeling very neglected.

I didn't like the pacing of this at all. There's only a few potential victims and it seems it's not interested in developing anything outside of violence so it's like 'jesus they're gonna get royally fucked up' but no, anytime they want to pick it up a random character appears and then gets offed with the quickness. The death/torture is pretty lame and throwing a kid into the situation is cheap and lazy

So I'm with @HARRISON_3 here. And I also spent the whole movie wishing I was watching Home Alone instead

 

[HenryFlower]

thought this was kinda shit. some of the camerawork & set design was cool even if it felt like knock-off Noé but somehow w/ more garish color palettes (i cannot stand that horrid oversaturated green/yellow vomit look). the bear trap death sequence was gnarly & the internal shots of the ambulance rollover scene at the end was awesome, but there wasn’t much else that got me excited, even when my trashy b-movie mentality kicked into gear.

maybe it’s just me, but i thought The Collector was this like nu metal torture porn ripoff of Cube, but w/ a desperate attempt at creating a new Myers/Voorhees/Krueger/etc type slasher icon.

 

[Bullitt68]

Sorry I'm late yet again guys I suck

I've really been out of the genre (As in both horror and torture porn) probably since A Serbian Film a decade ago. That's not me having issues with the genre I've just been out of the movie scene in general. I enjoyed the Hostel films back in the day (A Serbian Film was dreadful - not offensive or anything just a badly executed flick IMO) as well as gore fests likes Event Horizon or Dead Alive (Plus that spate of French gorefests like Inside) so I was interested to watch this and get back into the scene a little bit

First off it seemed to breeze through initial setup which I had no problem with and it gained early momentum and intrigue by doing this. Started expecting shit to get nasty at any moment and for it to rush into the splatter. But it really flubs this with an overlong, boring stealth/safe cracking sequence and the intrigue quickly turned into impatience and you look back thinking this time could've been better used to better establish the characters and setting, both of which end up feeling very neglected.

I didn't like the pacing of this at all. There's only a few potential victims and it seems it's not interested in developing anything outside of violence so it's like 'jesus they're gonna get royally fucked up' but no, anytime they want to pick it up a random character appears and then gets offed with the quickness. The death/torture is pretty lame and throwing a kid into the situation is cheap and lazy

So I'm with @HARRISON_3 here. And I also spent the whole movie wishing I was watching Home Alone instead

So close on Event Horizon yet so far away on The Collector

Whatever anyone's response to this film, I'm surprised that anyone could find the initial robbery attempt/torture house discovery scene "overlong" and "boring." That's the coolest part of the movie, dude! And the pacing is also one of the best parts, though this is due in part to the fact - which you cite as a con but which in my book is a pro - that the film is wholly concerned with the cat-and-mouse goings-on inside the house, which also connects to - which you also cite as a con but which in my book is a pro - the purposeful lack of character development, at least as that is traditionally understood. One of the best parts of the film is that you learn just enough about the protagonist to establish his goal and the stakes involved in his attempt to achieve his goal, so that everything that happens throughout the film gradually shows us more about him as a character (his moral compass, his intelligence, his tenacity, etc.) but strictly within the confines of the cat-and-mouse game. It's seriously a brilliant exercise in story and character construction, so economical yet without sacrificing a certain elegance.

thought this was kinda shit.

Hardcore movie nerds like you sometimes throw me. You like stuff that is genuinely shit, stuff that you'll freely admit is genuinely shit, stuff that I could never bring myself to watch in a million years, yet you can't get behind something like The Collector, which I guarantee is operating at least half a dozen levels above the genuine shit that you probably have on Blu-ray

some of the camerawork & set design was cool [...] the bear trap death sequence was gnarly & the internal shots of the ambulance rollover scene at the end was awesome

I'll take what I can get

even if it felt like knock-off Noé

I don't know him well enough to have seen that.

(i cannot stand that horrid oversaturated green/yellow vomit look).

AKA the David Fincher Special

i thought The Collector was this like nu metal torture porn ripoff of Cube, but w/ a desperate attempt at creating a new Myers/Voorhees/Krueger/etc type slasher icon.

First, I never got a sense of desperation. Second, Saw is more Cubeish than The Collector IMO. If anything, The Collector felt like an attempt to pull on the torture porn reins a bit and steer things more into the Hitchcockian territory of crafting suspense à la Rear Window.