I went into this movie knowing nothing about it and, for a while, I had high hopes. It starts with an unnerving sequence of a couple arriving home to a power outage and finding a luggage trunk in their bedroom which, when opened, leads to screaming and I'm-not-quite-sure-what. Then, after the titles, we meet a crew of assorted handymen, builders etc. who are working on a house owned by a dad, mum, teenage daughter and pre-teen daughter, who are about to leave on vacation. One of the workers, Arkin (Josh Stewart) is both creepy and sympathetic at the same time, and generates a feeling of unease in the audience. We then discover that his wife owes a large amount to loan sharks, that Arkin has criminal connections, and that he intends to burgle the house he has been working on in order to get the money necessary to pay the loan sharks.
So far so good - we have intriguing story elements, a sense of unease, and a sense of suspense. Unfortunately, when the burglary begins, the whole thing falls down. Arkin stumbles into a situation where an unknown psycho has set multiple traps up throughout the house, and a series of Saw-style torture episodes ensues with Arkin becoming the reluctant would-be saviour of the captive family. It's all rather familiar, and done perfectly satisfactorily in its own way, but another torture-porn movie falls short of the interesting developments promised by the opening 20 minutes or so.
And the ending irritated me. This would have been an ideal opportunity for the psycho to have actually got his comeuppance. But no, the completely expected unexpected twist took place, leaving Arkin's wife's loan shark plot thread unresolved but (of course) leaving the way open for The Collector II.
This is not to say that there isn't stuff to enjoy here. The cinematography is excellent, suspense is well maintained in a claustrophobic setting, and Madeline Zima as daughter Jill displays some impressive bosoms.
But it could all have been so much better.
So far so good - we have intriguing story elements, a sense of unease, and a sense of suspense. Unfortunately, when the burglary begins, the whole thing falls down. Arkin stumbles into a situation where an unknown psycho has set multiple traps up throughout the house, and a series of Saw-style torture episodes ensues with Arkin becoming the reluctant would-be saviour of the captive family. It's all rather familiar, and done perfectly satisfactorily in its own way, but another torture-porn movie falls short of the interesting developments promised by the opening 20 minutes or so.
And the ending irritated me. This would have been an ideal opportunity for the psycho to have actually got his comeuppance. But no, the completely expected unexpected twist took place, leaving Arkin's wife's loan shark plot thread unresolved but (of course) leaving the way open for The Collector II.
This is not to say that there isn't stuff to enjoy here. The cinematography is excellent, suspense is well maintained in a claustrophobic setting, and Madeline Zima as daughter Jill displays some impressive bosoms.
But it could all have been so much better.