'The Collector' full of glaring weaknesses

Director: Marcus Dunstan

Cast: Madeline Zima, Andrea Roth, Josh Stewart, Daniella Alonso

Cert: 18

A horror tale from the old days when blood, gore, torture and violence were more important than character depth and plot development … though if you are a fan of such films this one delivers exactly what you would expect.

Arkin (Stewart) is an ex-con doing odd jobs around the Detroit home of the Chase family. With a wife heavily and dangerously in debt to a loan shark Arkin plans to rob the house only to find a masked fruitcake has beaten him to it, holding the Chase family captive.

Arkin must find a way out of the house – which the baddie has rigged with elaborate and deadly traps – and take with him the young daughter who has been hiding.

So far so goodish, but the film keeps coming up with glaring weaknesses – when did the nutter find the time to set up so many traps, why is so much left unexplained? – so that we are left with only the blood-letting and stomach churning.

Star Rating: 2/5