The Collector is a 2009 American horror film written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, and directed by Dunstan. It stars Josh Stewart, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Juan Fernandez, Karley Scott Collins, Madeline Zima, and Robert Wisdom. The film follows a man who, in order to pay a debt, decides to rob a house, only to find out somebody with far more sinister intentions has already broken in.
The original script, titled The Midnight Man, was at one point shopped as a spin-off prequel to the Saw franchise, as an origin story for the villain John Kramer / Jigsaw, but the producers opposed the idea and dismissed it, leading to the script getting reworked to an original story.
The Collector was released on July 31, 2009, by Freestyle Releasing. It received generally negative reviews from critics, but was a moderate box office success, grossing $10.2 million against a $3 million budget. A sequel, The Collection, was released in 2012.
Plot
Married couple Larry and Gena Wharton return home to find the power is out. They discover a large trunk upstairs, and are horrified by its contents. They are then attacked by an unseen assailant.
Former convict Arkin O'Brien works as a handyman for the Chase family. He is generally well-liked by the Chases, especially the younger daughter Hannah. After work, Arkin meets his wife, whose debt to several loan sharks is due by midnight. To protect her and their daughter, Arkin plans to steal a valuable ruby from the Chase home.
As Arkin attempts to crack the safe, a masked figure locks the door. Michael, the father, appears with several injuries. Mistaking Arkin for the perpetrator, he grabs a golf club. Michael's action triggers a trap that incapacitates him, and the masked man drags Michael into the basement. Arkin attempts to call 911, but the phone is rigged with a spike that punctures his ear. The windows have been boarded up and lined with razors, making escape impossible.
Arkin retreats to the basement, where Michael informs him that his wife Victoria has also been captured, his older daughter Jill is out, and Hannah is hiding somewhere in the house. Michael gives Arkin the combination to the safe, which contains a gun. Arkin finds Victoria and has her distract the intruder in order for him to get to the safe. Arkin grabs the gun (which has no bullets) and pockets the ruby.
While searching for Hannah, he finds a trunk containing a bloodied Larry. Larry explains that the masked man is a "collector" of people; he only collects one person in a household and kills everyone else. Horrified, Arkin flees, while the Collector locks Larry back in the trunk. Back in the basement, Arkin discovers that Michael is now dead. He frees Victoria, who had been tortured. As they make their way out of the basement, Victoria sees Michael's corpse and panics, alerting the Collector, who stabs her several times.
Jill arrives home with her boyfriend Chad. As the two prepare to have sex on the kitchen table, they notice the Collector watching them. Chad attacks him but is killed when he is pushed into a room filled with several bear traps. Jill manages to make a 911 call before being captured. Arkin frees Jill, but she does not trust him and reaches for a pair of scissors, only to be killed by a trap. Arkin escapes the house alone, but sees the Collector approaching Hannah. Changing his mind, he reenters the house.
Arkin prepares a trap to kill the Collector, but the trap kills Larry instead. Arkin gets to Hannah, and sends her down a laundry chute to the basement to hide. Before Arkin can do the same, the Collector knocks him out, ties him up and brutally tortures him.
A police officer responding to Jill's 911 call is killed by the Collector's dog. Taking advantage of the distraction, Arkin frees himself and discovers a dead Victoria and armed explosives in the basement. After killing the Collector's dog with a flaming bucket and trapping the Collector in one of his own traps, Arkin escapes with Hannah.
Seeing approaching police cars, Arkin runs into the road to get their attention and is hit by one of the cars. He sees Hannah carried away by the police. He tells the police that the Collector was an exterminator working at the Chase house. The explosives detonate and destroy the house, but the Collector gets away unharmed. While Arkin is being taken to the hospital, The Collector ambushes the ambulance and kills everyone except Arkin, whom he kidnaps.
In a post-credits scene, the Collector watches film slides on the trunk containing Arkin, who threatens to kill him.