So really, and you know this for sure if you’re well-versed in the Saw series and saw The Collector and this new trailer for The Collection, this sick bastard almost makes John Kramer look rather quaint…

When I first saw the poster art (more on that art later) on Dreadcentral.com a couple of weeks ago for The Collection (2012), my immediate reaction (as soon as I realized what I was looking at) was not just to think, but actually say  out loud, “That …is …fucked-up!” even though I was the only person in the house at the time.  I assumed it was some new French Extremist horror film and  NOT a semi-mainstream US Theatrical release, and I’m actually still amazed this is the case. Take a look at the trailer that just debuted below– unless you’ve already seen enough disturbing trailers the past week, in which case you might prefer to wait.

Oh! Doesn’t look like they’re going for the slow burn approach on this sequel to 2009’s The Collector. I honestly had no idea a sequel was even in the works until I saw the seriously fucked-up nightmarish poster art on Dread Central. I noticed the image before I even considered what the movie was; I actually was reminded of the art for The Profane Exhibit, an upcoming horror anthology movie that’s been on my radar for quite some time.

Just for comparison, here’s the Profane Exhibit art, below. I’m going to have to see if it’s even in post-production, because other than some really cool stills, I haven’t heard a peep.

Anyway,  The Profane Exhibit is a piece for another day. Back to the shamelessly fucked-up pair of Collector movies. Here’s the official plot description (with one little obvious edit I couldn’t resist), also released today. Oh, and when I say “today” I mean “Thursday, September 20,” as the cut-off time for WordPress  is 5PM Pacific Time.*

When Elena’s (Emma Fitzpatrick) friends take her to a secret giant threshing machine massacre party at an undisclosed location, she never imagined she would become the latest victim of The Collector, a psychopathic killer. The Collector kidnaps and transports her to an abandoned hotel he’s transformed into his own private maze of torture and death. Upon learning of his daughter’s disappearance, Elena’s wealthy father (Christopher McDonald) hires a group of mercenaries to retrieve her from the vicious grips of The Collector. These mercenaries coerce Arkin (Josh Stewart), the only man to have escaped the wrath of this heinous monster, to lead them through the gruesome labyrinth. Now, Arkin finds himself fighting for his own life in order to save Elena. “The Collection,” directed by Marcus Dunstan and written by Dunstan and Patrick Melton, is a suspense horror film with nonstop thrills at every turn, starring Josh Stewart (The Dark Knight Rises), Emma Fitzpatrick (The Social Network), and Christopher McDonald (Requiem for a Dream). LD Entertainment will release The Collection in theaters November 30, 2012.

I may have mentioned before that I’m not a super-fan of the ‘guy wearing a black leather fetish mask who never speaks, brandishing a sharp instrument’ genre –especially when you add torture-porn into the mix. However, The Collection looks to be a notch up from that. Definitely has a more interesting plot line. I also hear they dialed down the torture-porn aspects while amping up the gore (and the stakes). Granted, the original Collector seemed to me to basically be Saw without the victim having to make a beat-the-clock horrible choice because the killer wants to teach them some kind of moral lesson and send a message. This guy, ‘the collector’,  just gets off on torture and his cleverness setting up his elaborate system of painful, nasty, deathly traps. Sometimes he just kills them himself (remember the unarguably vile bathtub torture/murder from The Collector? Gah!) and also at the very least felt up some of his victims. Also, Jig Saw’s victims usually had done something shitty, or in some cases downright evil, to end up in one of his ‘games’.

Well, guess what? The Collector could care less whether you’ve made questionable moral choices in the past. Nope! To end up dying a slow horrible death at his hands, you just had to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Seriously,  just show up, and you’re completely fucked.  Honestly, I’d rather take my chances with Jigsaw; at least no matter how grisly and painful his traps were they only lasted for a minute, not to mention no-one would try to molest you sexually during the process (you just got horribly mangled). Furthermore, Jigsaw didn’t toss innocent animals into the mix, either. So really, and you know this for sure if you’re well-versed in the Saw series and saw The Collector and this new trailer for The Collection, this sick bastard almost makes John Kramer look rather quaint.

If you have NOT seen The Collector, don’t really plan to, but are morbidly curious how grisly and dark it gets? Well, just check out the IMDB Parent’s Guide for 2009’s The Collector here.  If you do read it, consider this- does this film REALLY fall into the ‘Suspense-Thriller’ genre as it is listed on Netflix? And maybe I somehow rented an uncut version that the contributor to the Parent’s Guide didn’t, but from what I recall, this list actually LEAVES OUT a couple things. Consider yourself officially warned! I read it ahead of time before putting it in my queue because I heard a poor, unlucky cat gets caught in a trap and loses all nine lives, and only watched the movie after making careful notes on the running time the scene occurs in.** . Oh, and speaking of animals, you could not pay me enough to film this scene unless CGI made these guys:

So, if there’s no animal violence in The Collection, I guess I’m in. Probably at the theater. Probably by myself, even though this one seems less torture porn-y,  no way my husband and/or my friends are up for it! It beats being anywhere near the retail Black Friday…

And last but not least, this just in: The Collection will be having its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest 2012! So we can expect some advance reviews.

*I decided recently to stop racing against the clock to publish my post by 5PM and just go with it.

**Make fun of me all you want, call me a pussy (they have a good laugh/jeer at me on the IMDB boards when I bring up the subject) but I can’t stand to see animal violence depicted in a movie, even off-screen. Yes, I know it’s fake. Sorry, can’t watch it.

Related articles

• New Still From The Collection Towers Over a Victim; Trailer Hitting Wednesday! (dreadcentral.com)
• Some New Artwork to Add to The Collection (dreadcentral.com)
• Gloriously Sick New Trailer for Alex Chandon’s Inbred (2011): It’s Just So Wrong (horrorboom.com)
• New Theatrical Trailer for Grave Encounters 2 (Electric Boogaloo) (horrorboom.com)
• Fantastic Fest Announces Final Wave of Films Including the World Premiere of THE COLLECTION (collider.com)