Filthy Review - The Collective Volume 2: The Box

The Collective Vol. 2: The Box (2011)

Review by Jude Felton

When it comes to independent filmmakers they generally fall into two distinct categories. First you have the talentless hacks that are more than happy to rehash the same old tired crap, then butter it up with nice shiny artwork in the hopes of duping the public. Then you have the artists who try to add something to the genre they are working in. They aren’t content with the predictable and unoriginal, instead they try to feed our fears. Budget is not a concern, fresh new stories are.

With this in mind I will tell you that JABB Pictures fall squarely into the latter category. Through their short movies Polly and Spike and most notably their release of The Collective Vol 1: The Meat Eater. This collection of ten short movies, all of which ran to ten minutes with the same synopsis, impressed me throughout. In fact one of the shorts contained, Snow Angel, is one of my favorite shorts of the year. That being said all were very good and just showed what a little imagination could come up with.

Now, the Illinois based company have returned with a second collection, or Collective if you will, with the synopsis this time being a small box. As you can well imagine there is plenty of scope to take this idea in many directions, and many directions it is taken.

The companies involved this time are a mixture of those we saw before in the first collection, and some fresh new faces. I will say though that all have delivered the goods, and no I will not be revealing the plot of any of them. Part of the joy of watching these collections is not knowing where the filmmakers are going to take the idea of the box. Did I have favorites? Yes I did, more than one this time, but it is the originality of all that stood out most for me. There may be the odd camera faux pas here and there, and the acting may not always be the best, but that really isn’t where the enjoyment is garnered from. As is always the case it is the stories themselves that sell the product, and sell the product they do here.

My personal favorites, as I am sure you really want to know, were the segments from Grue Opus Films, Death Hug Films, So-So Pix and Spiral Filmworks. But even now when I type I think about another film that I really dug, and another. You get the idea, there really is something for every independent loving genre fan out there. Each film has its own identity and style, yet all work together to bring this collection to life.

The full list of companies behind the films are as follows:

Jabb Pictures

Death Hug Films

Grue Opus Films

Spiral Filmworks

So-So Pix

Quattro Venti Scott Productions

Susie Does Horror

Graphik 13 Films

Red Panic Button Films

Liberty or Death Productions

All in all I most definitely recommend you check out The Collective Vol 2: The Box. If you dug the first one you will really dig this one. There are a few familiar faces that pop up in some of the movies, if you are familiar with the early collection, and some startling performances too. It’s always easy to criticize acting in independent movies, but I really should also give credit where it is due as well.

The Collective Vol 2 is what independent genre filmmaking should be, it’s original, fresh, sometimes scary and always keeps your attention. A great job done by all.

The Collective Vol 2 is available now from JABB Pictures Official Site.