The Collector

Directed and written by Marcus Dunstan, from whose twisted pen Saw movies IV through to the forthcoming VII gushed forth, The Collector is intended for the same people who went to see those films. Which is to say, it's not of much interest unless you're a dedicated horror completist, or else just not that fussy.

The plot functions as a bare meathook on which to hang various grisly deaths. Josh Stewart plays Arkin, an unlucky burglar who in the course of raiding a house, encounters a masked man whose splatter-happy contraptions have turned the house into a giant booby trap. Acid, knives, nails, spiky things, meat-cleavers, barbed wire, fish hooks, bear traps - the masked villain here is something of a MacGyver, and obviously takes a certain pride in his inventiveness. Note for cat lovers: this is not your film - a nasty fate awaits the household moggy. Alas, poor Tiddles.

The killer is the usual unstoppable maniac in a mask, most of the victims the usual spatter-fodder, and, as usual, hardly anybody seems to have a functioning mobile phone. The Collector is what it is, which is humourless nuts and bolts horror of the unflinchingly messy variety.