Thursday, April 11, 2013

"The Collection" Movie Review – Better Than the First One


Runtime: 82 minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: November 30, 2012
Director: Marcus Dunstan

Elena wants nothing more than to kick back with her boyfriend and probably watch a movie and have a little nookie. Unfortunately, he decides to be a lying prick and call to tell her that he's stuck at work when he's actually going to an underground club. Her best friend arrives with another friend, and they convince her to spend the night at the same club. After checking her hearing aide, she agrees to go with them, which is a huge mistake.

The club is actually a front for the Collector (Randall Archer), the serial killer from the film of the same name. After the Collector dispatches the people in the club, he turns his attention on the few survivors. Elena finds her way into a small room where she unlocks a chest and out pops Arkin (Josh Stewart) from the first film. Arkin does what he can, but he can't stop the Collector from grabbing Elena and running away.

While in the hospital and recovering from his ordeal, he's approached by Lucello, a man hired by Elena's father. He once pulled her from a burning car after an accident that wrecked her hearing, and he works closely with her dad. They offer Arkin a deal, and he agrees to go back to the abandoned hotel where the Collector takes his victims and help them save Elena.

"The Collection" makes my list of the top five horror films that I've seen in the last year. I absolutely loved the original film, which had one of those truly fucked up endings, and I think I might have enjoyed this one even more. There is literally nothing about this film that I didn't like.

Early in the film, there's a scene that rivals "Blade" for one of the best club scenes. As the dancers shake their asses on the floor, the Collector watches from above. He hits a switch, and suddenly, a large circular blade cuts through the crowd, literally cutting off heads and body parts. Elena's best friend is one of the few survivors who make it off the dance floor, but he isn't done with them. After trapping them, he drops a blade-filled ceiling on them. The ceiling drops slowly, as Elena watches in horror unable to save her friend.

Believe it or not, all of this happens in the first fifteen minutes of the movie, and it just keeps getting better from there! We get some insight into the way the Collector works, including how he kidnaps multiple people and keep them in certain rooms or locked in trunks. Those who perform the best in his little tests wind up as part of his permanent collection, while the rest just wind up dead. When Lucello and his men arrive at the hotel, they face one obstacle over the next, and it's just awesome.

That's not to say that there aren't a few problems with the movie. Early on, we see a news report from a reporter talking about a serial killer on the loose. The reporter makes it clear that people keep disappearing, but since there's no proof that anyone is dead, it's hard to believe that the police would just randomly announce that a serial killer is out there.

There are also a few traps and scenes that seem impossible and hard to believe. Could a woman really survive mounted to the wall like a butterfly? How do these people survive locked in trunks when there's no evidence that he ever fed them or gave them water? Those questions didn't pop up in my head until much later after watching the movie, and I highly doubt that I'll think about that when I remember the movie later. I'll just keep thinking about those great traps and opening scenes.

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