THE COLLECTOR (2009) **

A thief named Arkin (Josh Stewart) must crack his employers’ safe to get the dough necessary to pay off his ex-wife’s debt.  Once he breaks in, he finds the place isn’t what it appears to be.  Someone else is in there and has set deadly booby traps throughout the home.  He then must try to save the family before they fall prey to a black-masked killer (Juan Fernandez) who “collects” his victims.  

The Collector was the brainchild of Feast and Saw sequel writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton.  It’s a grisly, yet generic mix of Saw, Don’t Breathe, and (checks notes) Home Alone.  It’s certainly has some grisly moments (there’s a gnarly bear trap scene) and touches of surprising atmosphere in the early scenes.  (There are shots that evoke both Argento and De Palma.)  

Once the action switches to the house, it becomes yet another darkened, dreary, unimaginative torture porn-type of horror flick.  The solid set-up eventually gives way to ho-hum execution and the doldrums set in well before the finale.  Dunstan shows enough promise as a director in the early scenes though to make you want to see something else from him down the road.  

The script however leaves a little something to be desired.  Dunstan and Melton originally conceived it to be a prequel to Saw, but they reworked it to be its own thing.  I guess if you could excuse the rampant lapses in logic (like how the hell the Collector could rig up all those elaborate traps on such short notice) and eye-rolling clichés in the third act, you might find this one worthy of your collection.