The Collection

Anyone who hoped that torture-porn movies had run their course will get a nasty surprise from this sequel to The Collector (VL Online-5/10), which was a mean-spirited, claustrophobic horror film about a man trapped in a darkened house with a killer who specialized in intricate death-traps. Filmmaker Marcus Dunstan's The Collection plays out on a larger scale than its predecessor, beginning with a gruesome scene in which the Collector, clad in his familiar black mask, rigs a rotating blade from a farm machine to descend from the ceiling of a nightclub and literally rip the gyrating patrons to bits. As is the Collector's custom, he carts off one of the survivors—Elena (Emma Fitzpatrick)—to his lair in a dilapidated hotel, pursued by a gang of vigilantes that includes Arkin (Josh Stewart), who escaped the Collector's clutches in the first film. What follows is the usual cat-and-mouse game as the would-be heroes try to evade their quarry's elaborate contraptions in order to rescue Elena—with most, of course, falling to make the cut (so to speak). The film closes with a turn-the-tables epilogue that—unfortunately—suggests another sequel may be coming. The Collection sports the gloomy cinematic look common to this sort of grisly fare, as well as hyperkinetic editing designed to give viewers jolts; but, ultimately, this is just another helping of the same brutal, pointless mayhem endemic to the genre, peopled by wafer-thin characters played by a nondescript cast. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)