Day 280: The Collector

I was originally going to do Nightmare on Elm Street 2 today but I think the ink spilled about the homosexual metaphors in that movie is plenty. Beyond that, there isn't much of interest to say about it.

The Collector suckered me in with a great, basic premise: what if a master thief matched wits with a serial killer? The idea immediately captured my imagination and I wondered just how strong the execution could be. Directed by the guy who wrote some of the worst Saw movies, this was pretty much immediately a bummer for me. A thief, who is pretty good at his job, breaks into a mansion one night to steal some jewels or something. It just so happens this is the same night a Saw-like serial killer has set up a series of sadistic traps to kill and torture the family that lives there.

The whole movie quickly devolves from a snazzy setup to a series of grisly murders. Not quite as hopeless as the Strangers, there is still very little light in this movie. Every strategy tried by the thief just gets more people killed. The fact that he is a thief doesn't really come into play at all besides explaining why he is in the house in the first place. The serial killer is so far ahead of everyone else that he never seems beatable or escapable. This is one rare instance where the sequel is actually more fun than the original.

If I were you, I would skip The Collector and go straight for the Collection, which is still bad but gets fun in a trashy way that the first one doesn't.