As always, I dont put spoilers in my reviews.
Well last night I went to see The Collector at the fuck balls AMC theater I despise so much but what was I gonna do? It was the only place around here showing it. So to ease my pain I had a nice dinner before hand at Joes Crabshack and sat outside looking down over the Ohio river stuffing myself with coconut shrimp and drinking way to much beer, luckily in my stupor I only had to drive down the street to the theater. Anywho, this is the first movie directed by Marcus Dunstan who was also a writer of saw 4, 5 and 6 (not something to be real proud of) and all 3 feast movies.
Direction: The direction was surprisingly well done here. I was very surprised it didnt suffer from "sit camera infront of actors, turn on camera, come back later" syndrome most horror movies do today where they basically think as long as you point the camera at the actors your a good director. It had alot of nice sweeping movements, interesting camera angles and the visual pacing wasnt static. And thank you (insert deity of your choice here) that they didnt do that bullshit of where the camera franctically shakes and flies around the screen while they speed up the frame rate of a person running around cause that shit is fucking cheap and damn annoying. At any rate the directing was well done in this, everything from dead guy face down in the water to chic getting felt up on a end table were shot with a little personality to them. Aside from a little over use of color filters at certain times I have no complaints here. I also really liked the fact that it alot of times had this look and feel of some late 70's or early 80's horror film with its color and grain filters.
Acting: Well we were on a high with the directing so now we get the low with the acting. But honestly, this is a horror flick and not a paticullarly cerebral one at that so expecting good acting here is like expecting to fuck a 3 dollar ghetto meth hooker in a abandoned crackhouse with no condom on and think your dick wont look like a cheese pizza when you pull it out. I mean it was decent but nothing noteworthy here good or bad really, everyone played their part out from their script and that was that. Only thing was everytime they were expected to show fear or convey any real emotion was they felt like they were having to try to hard or just obviously faking it. But like I said its a slasher flick for the most part, you dont watch those for peoples acting chops.
Storyline: Basically I could write the storyline on the back of a cocktail napkin. It felt very thin and fraile to me as if you stared to hard at it that it would collapse in on itself like a blackhole becoming extinct. When the credits were done and the lights came on I didnt feel like I knew anything more than when Id gone in aside from some people were killed by a sadistic fuck with a love for traps. And thats where the obvious overtones from writing Saw movies comes in, the whole trap idea felt familliar here because of it, atleast though it didnt feel like it was being repeated or rehashed. But all in all I just wasnt drawn in or anything, it was like the movie The Strangers from not long ago where you basically are just shown a chunk of someones life with no real purpose or base behind it. Unlike The Strangers though this didnt benefit from that, The Strangers drew me in with its lifelike and relatable characters and was presented in a way that you felt both satisfied and unsatisfied at once, that mechanic didnt work as well here. I dont always need to know absolutely every little detail but sometimes it is nice to know something so you dont feel like you paid 9.75 to watch a couple people get killed and thats it.
Effects: Well far as the audio goes I really wish they had done more with it. I really didnt care for the scratchy half assed techno type music that was more or less just noise tossed in here and there, that shit got old along time ago. I really think this movie would have done better with no music and played off more of the music of the country nightlife the house was set in or the sounds of all those old hardwood floors and such to build more tension. All the music here was just background noise and did nothing to set the stage for what was happening onscreen. The visual effects were good though, far as I could tell no CG effects were used, everything looked like practical effects which made me happy as it didnt detract from the movie at all.
Overall: I enjoyed myself, it was visually appealing and entertaining. It wasnt something I would buy on dvd and watch multiple times though, its more of something Ill check out if it comes to like the fearnet channel on cable or something cause once youve seen it, youve seen it. For being the directors first outing it was a good effort but fell flat in the end a little because of the a few minor things that end up being more important than you would think. It was better than some of the summer huge self proclaimed big budget hollywood flicks like Wolverine or Terminator 4 but it lacked personality and detail like Drag Me to Hell or Moon. One thing it certainly wasnt though it claimed it was is a new horror icon killer. It was like jerking off where its good on the build up but a couple missed strokes and the ending isnt what you were hoping for and after its over your glad you did it but wished it was a little more.
I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
Trailer: http://tinyurl.com/lh5fzd
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