Flicks I've watched (Part 11)

See here for part 10.

So, I heard about these round about the time I also got recommended to me Manborg, American Mary, and Stitches.

And well...I'll get into why I held off in the reviews.


The Collector (2009)

So, this totally just looked like tired rehashed torture-porn to me.
And they even pimp the thing as being written by the guys who wrote fucking Saw IV, V, and VI.

That's not a good recommendation.
It may as well say "if you loved 'Encino Man'....".

I steered clear.
It seemed the wise rational thing to do.

Well, after seeing a video review that allayed my worries, I checked it out.
I was pleasantly surprised.
And, that's really an understatement.

Like "Mother's Day", is the antidote to the entire "Friday The 13th", franchise, this is the antidote to everything wrong with the "Saw", franchise.

It addresses my every beef with the Saws.

1. Asshole protagonists. I hated everyone in the Saws from 2 onward. Hated their stupid rotten awful guts. You actually like the guy in "The Collector", and you get 25 minutes of character development with him before the bad shit starts happening. "Mother's Day", had this plus too.
2. Implausibly unstoppable villain whose conspiracy has no fucking periphery.  "The Collector", is smart, but he makes mistakes, and has flaws to exploit.
3. There are torture traps, but it's not pure sadism for its own sake. And the traps are foil-able.
4. The killer is there taking part, he dirties his hands, and the tables can be turned on him.
5. He turns YOUR home into the deathtrap. That's a scary twist I hadn't seen before.
6. Heehee, given 5, I imagined this is what Kevin from "Home Alone", grows up into.
7. The killer shuts the fuck up. After 7 fucking Saws with the jeering TV set, we really needed a fucking break with that.

So, yeah, I would recommend this.
It's a decent little horror film.
Good one for a Halloween marathon.
I especially recommend it, because it gets you to the sequel.

Waaatch eeet!!!!


The Collection (2012)

One of those ones like "Evil Dead 2", and "Hellbound", and "Dawn Of The Dead", and "Aliens", that surpasses the original.

In fact, tonal shift wise, this one relates to the first in the way that "Alien", relates to "Aliens".
It even has the core skeletal plot with a whole armed team dragging the survivor back to go after the monster.

It picks up right where the first one left off, and features a scene where the villain literally mows down (with a sort of thresher type blade) a whole techno dance club.
Well, they had me at "hello", there!
I've always wanted to see that!
How did they read my mind?
Did Horror-Claus forward my letter?

Oh, and survivor-girl is a cutie.
If there are sequels, I totally want her back.

So, yeah, these are both well worth your time, don't be fooled by the shitty publicity for this thing.
This duology deserves to be among the new classics.
They definitely go on my shopping list.