Bullet Points: The Collection (2012)
2009’s The Collector was directed by Marcus Dunstan and written by Dunstan and his pal Patrick Melton. You may remember their names from their earlier series of films titled Feast. They were also a part of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s show Project Greenlight. This probably doesn’t mean much to some of you but just know that The Collector is rad as fuck. It was only fitting, then, that I would watch the sequel released just a few years after. Let’s see if it lives up to my own hype.
Synopsis: A man who escapes from the vicious grips of the serial killer known as “The Collector” is then forced to help rescue an innocent girl from the killer’s booby-trapped lair.
- Shooter and his daughter: Shooter McGavin star Christopher McDonald plays the wealthy Mr. Peters. He was a in a terrible car accident where he lost some very close to him. Now he holds his daughter Elena (Emma Fitzpatrick) even closer to him. Too bad for him that her shit boyfriend ditches her and she goes to some swanky club with her friend.
- Up in da club: The club looks totally awesome. It’s hidden in some strange alley and you need a secret password to get in. It’s also very packed full of people who are having a ball making out with each other and grinding like it’s a rap video. Elena finds her BF there cheating on her and she runs off in distress. Lucky for her, it saves her from the devilish killing device that The Collector had somehow set up. It’s not only impressive but also pretty impossible to get this massive structure to hang over the dance floor but the damage it does it also totally awesome and the bloodbath that ensues is wild.
- A few decent people: Time to get the team together for Mr. Peters’ number one man Lucello (Lee Tergesen). He pulls a handful of tough *people* to go and retrieve Elena after she gets taken away from the club alive. We know she’s alive because Arkin (Josh Stewart) is still alive from the first film and agrees to take Lucello and his team to where The Collector is keeping his prey.
- Zombified dog-people: If someone is that fucked up that they will collect people then you know their crib is going to be super fucked up. That is what Lucello and Arkin and the rest find when they get there. There are people chained up and drugged to the gills. So drugged up that they’re essentially rabid zombies on a leash, to be released at the will of The Collector.
- Maze of death: Getting in wasn’t that tough for the team but getting out will be near impossible. In fact, the scene where they discover where the hideout is for the sadistic madman is pretty rad. Arkin had made marks on his arm for every turn they took in the vehicle and essentially did a pace count so he could make his way back to the place. It works surprisingly well and shows us that Arkin is no dummy.
- They deserve to live: As the film goes on, and after watching the first in series, I’ve developed a strong interest in the survival of Arkin O’Brien. Josh Stewart plays the hell out of the character and it’s great to see a franchise take interest in not only the villain but also the hero. The dude also takes a serious amount of punishment and it’s great to see the ways in which he uses some of those to his advantage.
- Almost: There is a point in the film where the survivors nearly make it out of the house of horrors. That’s pretty par for the course when it comes to horror films but this movie has one of the cooler scenes as The Collector throws a door open, standing bolding in the light with his rifle in his hand and two killer dogs at his side. I definitely popped for this scene.
- Make it three: Horror movies never know when to quit. Some of the longest running slasher franchises are over a dozen films and we just recently saw the release of Saw X. That is a lot of torturing. The Collection definitely feels like it’s not the last in the franchise as the final minutes of the film go by and we get to see The Collector in his normal life being confronted by a survivor. Not only does it give the film something of a “happy ending”, but it also sets up a very strange third film in a trilogy. Sadly, as filming on The Collected was stopped around the time of Covid, many of the props were stolen and the film seems to have been dropped by the studio. We may never know what was planned with the final installment in what I would consider a fantastic recent attempt in the horror genre.
The Verdict: The Collection was totally awesome! I recently watched The Collector, the first film in the series and had a blast seeing how demented some of the kills were but this one took it to another level. There are several other things this movie does well that you don’t see often in the genre; the main survivors (Arkin and Elena) are actually smart. They might even be too smart at times because everyone else comes off as kind of stupid by comparison. It also has some really good call-backs. Not to previous films or other slashers but to the things that happened earlier in the film. There were probably three different times where something happened that I legit had not seen before. In conclusion, it’s a fantastic film and I hope you watch it if you haven’t already. Let’s all hope that it gets that third and final film that has been rumored for years.
