From the writers of Saw comes… another Saw.

I’m going to “review”—or more accurately, “explain”—this movie through each character’s point of view. Eventually, it’ll all tie together and become an actual story—or in this case, the plot.

To begin, this was a very generic horror thriller, featuring your usual smart-aleck humor, stereotypical male figures, and helpless females (except, of course, for the main character, because she was a badass).

Arkin (Josh Stewart)

Arkin is the main male character (which can be debated, as The Collector himself could arguably be the real lead). Arkin is the only person to have been captured by The Collector and escaped. Somehow, according to movie logic, this makes him an expert in booby traps and gives him an intimate understanding of The Collector’s methods. Since no one else has any real information, he’s pretty much the only person who can help.

Arkin was captured a while ago and tortured to the brink of death. Unlike the other victims, he had something to live for—his wife. However, she becomes a minor, unimportant detail, only showing up for a grand total of one scene.

You can clearly see the bond between them when, upon reuniting, he tells her to f** off* (in a nice way, of course) within seconds. Knowing that The Collector might target his family or anyone he knows, Arkin tells his wife to leave and go stay with her mother (or grandmother—I can’t remember exactly).

We first meet our lovely protagonist at a disco party, where everyone is having a grand time getting down and cheating on their significant others. This is when our main female character enters the scene and becomes important…

Elena (Emma Fitzpatrick)

Elena is one strong woman who holds her ground unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I’m going to skip ahead a bit and then backtrack.

Elena’s mother either died or disappeared when she was young. Now, she’s at a club her “friends” dragged her to, having a great time—until she spots her boyfriend swapping spit with another woman. Not only has he cheated on her at the same club she’s at, but he also lied, claiming he had to work. (Which, considering how insanely rich her father is, you’d have to be another level of stupid to think you wouldn’t get caught.)

Fueled by pure rage, she walks up to him and slaps him across the face. Then, in classic cool guys don’t look at explosions fashion, she storms off and heads to the bathroom—where she meets Arkin.

Lucello (Lee Tergesen)

A flashback shows a young Elena and her father in a car. He promises he’ll be around more—only for a car crash to cut the moment short. Elena is trapped inside the vehicle as her father, ejected from the car, struggles to reach her before it explodes. Just when all hope seems lost, a man appears and smashes the window, saving her.

That man? Lucello.

Lucello, her father’s personal security agent (and, in a weird way, possibly in love with her), later forces Arkin—who just barely escaped The Collector’s previous death trap—to go right back into the nightmare. He assembles a squad of “trained professionals” to infiltrate The Collector’s hideout and rescue Elena. Predictably, one by one, they all die horribly.

Lucello, at least, dies nobly.

Every room in The Collector’s house is a magical surprise of fear and destruction.

In one room, victims have been forcefully OD’d, had their tongues cut out, and been turned into feral animals with creepy plaster masks. These poor souls see an open door and rush toward it, desperate for freedom—only for the rescue squad to gun them down.

Elena and the squad later meet Abby (Erin Way), who seems like a victim but is actually crazy. After being saved by Elena, she betrays them, locks a door to trap them inside, and gets herself killed in the process.

The Collector (Randall Archer)

Honestly? Not much to say about him.

Because we NEVER learn who he is.

Throughout the entire movie, you might think, “Aha! I bet he’s a close friend! That would be a plot twist!”

Nope. Burn that thought.

The only backstory we get is that he’s some kind of ethnologist—which, according to Wikipedia, is “the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them.”

That’s it. No face reveal. No deeper motivation. Just—screw you, audience!

Back to the Story

Elena notices a random box sitting in the middle of the room and thinks to herself, I’ve always wanted to open mysterious boxes lying around. So, naturally, she does. And—wouldn’t you know it—a man pops out!

Of course, he tackles her to the ground, but only to save her from a ridiculously elaborate booby trap. The moment she unlocks the box, a giant javelin flies across the room and nearly impales her. If it weren’t for Arkin, she’d be dead—or just really lucky.

This sets off a beautifully unnecessary sequence of CGI pulley systems and levers, triggering a massive spinning death machine in the middle of the club’s dance floor.

This giant blender of doom shreds through the entire crowd, sparing only Elena’s cheating ex. The coward pushes past everyone, ignoring Elena as she stares at him like, Seriously? He runs straight into another trap, which slices his legs—then, as he trips, slices his throat for the ultimate double-tap disrespect.

Unfortunately, another woman (possibly his sister?) and her brother—who was so close to getting laid—die as well. The brother is minced by the spinning death machine, while the sister gets crushed under an elevator specifically designed to lay the smackdown on you.

If you like Saw-esque gore, ridiculously over-the-top traps, and smashing glass jars filled with creepy humanoid creatures—give this movie a watch!