Filthy Review - 'The Collection'

The Collection (2012)

Review by Jude Felton

2009’s The Collector originally started off life as a Saw prequel and, even though it ended up having nothing to do with that franchise, it did have many similar elements; in particular the numerous traps. Where The Collector differed though is that with John Kramer’s traps you had a chance of escaping them; The Collector’s are designed to kill, and nothing more. As it turned out, I loved the first film and was anxious to see The Collection, having missed it at the theater. I’ll tell you right now, I thought it was an absolute riot from start to finish. However, that does not mean that there weren’t a lot of issues with it.

A young student, Elena, ends up heading to a secret party after her boyfriend blows her off for the night (and not in a good way). Once there the shit seriously hits the fan, as the Collector is back, and his plans are more elaborate than ever; not to mention a whole lot gorier. The body count in this scene is far more than most films combined.

These scene all culminates in Elena being ‘collected’, but not before she has come face to face with Arkin (Josh Stewart); the anti-hero of The Collector, who himself was held captive. The upshot of all this is that a character named Lucello wants Arkin to lead him to the Collector’s lair, so he can rescue Elena and put a stop to this killer once and for all.

The Collection is totally preposterous and so much fun. How the hell does the collector set up all these traps? The logistics alone is enough to boggle the mind, let alone putting them together. Some of the script is absolutely cringe-inducing in its banality, which isn’t helped by the film’s fair share of cardboard characters, but by damnit the filmed worked. The main reason for this is the collector himself, along with the indestructible Arkin. Broken arm? Yeah, so what, that won’t hold him back.

In The Collection the collector is far more hands on than in the previous movie, which shows him to be a tough sonofabitch, as well as an especially sadistic one. The film also focuses far more on the killer this time around, which was good to see.

The writing/directing team of Patrick Felton and Marcus Dunstan, who return from The Collector, have shown here that they can make a trashy, and very well made, horror flick that works. Quite unlike Piranha 3DD, which I am sure they wrote for a joke. What they can’t seem to get away from though is the Saw-ism’s. Having penned four Saw films it seems that those are stuck in their heads. Not only do we get the traps, which I can happily live with as Saw was certainly not the first trap-orientated movie, but we also get Charlie (Saw 1-7) Clouser composing the score, Kevin Greutert, who edited five Saw flicks and directed 2, editing the film and the film even looks like a Saw film. Cut the cord boys, and move on.

Despite all of these gripes, and really you could rip this film to shreds, it absolutely rocks. It’s just a full-on gruesome and bloody blast of adrenaline throughout its 75 minute running time. Bone-crunching, blood spraying, head exploding overkill that comes at you thick and fast, and just hopes you left your logic keys on the hanger in the hallway. There were also some nice Fulci and Argento nods throughout the film.

Why can’t a film just be good fun? No reason at all. You want logic? Jason, Chucky, Freddy et al all coming back for thousands of sequels. This is a horror film, so suspend your disbelief and buckle up for the ride, as logic doesn’t always find itself at home in a horror flick. Sure, it isn’t perfect, but it is a whole lot of fun. Oh, and it looks bloody superb in high definition! Bring on the third film in the series please.

The Collection is released on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on March 26th from Lionsgate.