Against all odds, the aptly-named tenth entry within the Saw franchise, Saw X, has surprised each critics and audiences alike. Now cited as the very best entry within the franchise subsequent to the one which began all of it, Saw X has since reignited curiosity within the once-annual horror staple with its creative deathtraps and gore-stained creativity in tow. If we’re fortunate, we could even see a possible revival of the extremely grim period of horror that proliferated all through the mid-2000s, albeit with a contemporary edge to them. After all, would not you need to see elevated horror with a bit extra grime to it?
But let’s dial issues again a bit: Saw X additionally presents an attention-grabbing conundrum. Once you see Saw X, that is all you are going to get from the franchise for a very good whereas. If you are already a Saw fan, likelihood is you’ve got already binged by means of the collection’ large backlog of legacy titles. How else will you get your Saw repair earlier than Saw 11 inevitably hits theaters? There’s no want to fret. An answer is already available within the type of 2009’s The Collector.
What Is The Collector?
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The Collector is a singular spin on the same old Saw formulation. We comply with Arkin O’Brien, performed by Josh Stewart, who finds himself in an ethical quandary. Though he is an on a regular basis blue-collar employee by day, he moonlights as a thief when the specter of debt assortment begins to loom over his shoulders. He decides that his prime goal is the exact same home he is at the moment engaged on, owned by the Whartons.
However, when Arkin finds the proper time to do the deed, he realizes he is not alone. A masked intruder has occupied the property, lining it with a collection of Home Alone traps with all technique of escape being inaccessible. Can Arkin escape the killer’s clutches, safe his ill-gotten items, and save the few Whartons nonetheless left alive? Or will he simply turn into yet one more sufferer of the Collector?
Though it does take a number of cues from the Saw franchise, The Collector fortunately differentiates itself with a number of distinctive qualities. Nearly your entire movie takes place in a single location, the Wharton home, which has since turn into totally occupied by the Collector’s quite a few loss of life traps. While you will not discover any reverse bear traps right here, our masked killer rivals Jigsaw when it comes to his ingenuity, even pondering of a contingency plan ought to his traps one way or the other fail. Of course, his “contingency plan” is just a loaded shotgun and handgun.
The Collector being an energetic antagonist in comparison with Jigsaw additionally makes for extra tense confrontations. Both the Collector and Arkin, deliberately or not, are wearing related all-black attires, not directly conveying to the viewers that they every maintain an analogous talent set. Their quite a few brawls, culminating in a tense battle of wits by the finale, make for some genuinely palpable pressure.
The Collector Could’ve Been a Saw Movie
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Interestingly sufficient, The Collector may’ve been an official entry within the Saw franchise throughout its preliminary improvement. Patrick Melton, who co-wrote the movie with Marcus Dunstan, would elaborate on this a couple of weeks previous to the movie’s July 31 debut.
In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, it was revealed that the 2 penned the movie’s authentic screenplay – initially titled The Midnight Man – earlier than it was finally handed over to an government at Twisted Pictures, the manufacturing firm primarily recognized for Saw. Though the thought to show The Collector right into a prequel would in the end be shut down, the interplay would finally outcome within the duo writing not one, not two, however three separate Saw movies: Saw IV, Saw V, and Saw VI.
It’s simple to see the similarities between the 2 franchises for those who’re a religious Saw fan. The Collector’s cinematography makes heavy utilization of sickly yellows and greens with cooler blues within the numerous rooms of the home, its fashionable modifying decisions mirror these discovered within the later Saw movies, and even some musical cues evoke reminiscences of Saw’s well-known moments. Though the fear is extra subdued in The Collector, the follow-up movie, The Collection, takes the franchise – together with its quite a few traps – into ridiculously over-the-top territory. Instead of a single McMansion residence, the Collector’s trap-building antics fill a whole deserted lodge, drawing much more parallels to Tobin Bell’s moralistic assassin.
Related: Saw: The Scariest Trap of Each Movie
The Collector May Return Soon
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Though The Collector was profitable sufficient for a sequel to be made in 2012, one other entry on this gore-tinged franchise continues to be underway – most likely. As simple as it could be to say that The Collected, the proposed third entry in The Collector franchise, is at the moment in improvement, the true reply is extremely muddled. Alongside the announcement that Peter Giles would don our killer’s black masks, manufacturing swiftly started in late 2019.
That is till it was swiftly shut down barely every week later. There’s no clear rationalization as to why: Dunstan and Melton have acknowledged that quite a few makes an attempt to contact others concerned within the manufacturing have gone unheard, and a number of props had been allegedly taken from the set with out their permission. Stranger issues have actually occurred on this planet of cinema, however the possibilities of seeing a 3rd Collector movie hit the massive display have considerably dwindled.
Related: 13 Movies to Watch if You Love the Saw Franchise
Still, even when The Collected by no means involves fruition, we’re left with a duology of horror movies excellent for Saw followers in every single place. Seeing how each Dunstan and Melton would form the later movies within the Saw franchise, their efforts right here permit them to showcase their inventive abilities with out being constrained to the Saw universe. They’re a terrific set of movies to see now that Saw X has lastly arrived.
First seem at Horror Movies Like Saw
