Creepy Serial-Killer Film Almost Became a Saw Prequel

Image: LD Entertainment

Former convict–turned–handyman Arkin O’Brien (Josh Stewart) is cornered: if he doesn’t repay a debt to brutal loan sharks, they’ll kill his wife and daughter. With few alternatives, he breaks into the suburban home of a former client to steal enough cash — only to discover the family already held captive by a masked sadist who stages elaborate, torturous games. Surrounded by a house rigged with murderous contraptions, Arkin must fight, improvise, and survive.

It’s easy to hear echoes of the Saw franchise in The Collector’s premise. The film began life as The Midnight Man and was at one point discussed as a possible Saw prequel origin for Jigsaw; original Saw producers read the script but ultimately passed on folding it into the franchise. The screenplay was revised and released as The Collector, while writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton later contributed scripts to Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, and Saw 3D.

That decision to release The Collector on its own terms may have kept it out of the franchise spotlight — and that’s arguably a strength. Freed from constant comparison to other Saw entries, the film establishes its own identity. Dunstan and Melton build tension deliberately: we meet the victims and learn their struggles, which makes the violence that follows all the more devastating, and the home’s escalating, inventive traps remain unnervingly effective.

The Collector’s antagonist doesn’t share Jigsaw’s hollow moralism. Haunted by a traumatic childhood event he alone survived, he channels his resentment into re-creating pain — targeting families and “adding” survivors to his macabre collection. If you’re drawn to hallucinatory visuals, sudden scares, and unapologetic gore, you’ll probably forgive the thin psychological scaffolding; at least the killings are executed with grim, stylistic flair.

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Source: Polygon