- Directed by Marcus Dunstan
- Written by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan
- Stars Josh Stewart, Andrea Roth, Juan Fernandez
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1sL7QWL5c
Spoiler-free Judgment Zone
It is bloody and brutal, but too many elements don’t make sense when you ponder them too deeply. Those elements somewhat take the viewer out of the moment, which lessens the impact of the suffering and drama. At least it did for us. It’s well made for what it is, but we didn’t love it.
Spoilery Synopsis
A couple arrives back at their big house after what looks like a night out. Larry tries to turn on the lights, but they don’t work. Gena calls him upstairs, as there’s a strange box in their room. He opens the box and screams as the credits roll.
We return with Michael and Victoria Chase, who are renovating their new house. Arkin is there doing much of the work and notices all the pictures on the wall. The daughter, Hannah, makes him play “tea party” with her. Arkin is here to install the security system and seems obsessed with bugs. He flirts with the other daughter, Jill. Jill and Victoria argue about going on a family vacation– they’re all leaving for a trip.
Arkin goes to see his ex, Lisa, and daughter, Cindy. Lisa owes money to loan sharks, and he doesn’t have enough money for her. He promises to get her the money. He calls Roy, a criminal acquaintance, and offers to split half the take if he can get paid tonight. They’ve done this before, but Arkin wants to rush the job, which doesn’t please Roy. Arkin is an experienced safecracker, and Michael Chase, the victim, is a jewel broker.
Night falls, and Arkin puts on a black ski mask and walks through the woods to the empty house. He picks the lock and lets himself in. He goes straight to the safe and gets to work– until someone else comes into the house. Arkin tries to run away, but there are a bunch of locks on the door.
Suddenly, Arkin hears screaming from somewhere upstairs. Then he finds Michael badly beaten. Michael thinks Arkin is involved in all this. Then Michael sets off some kind of elaborate wire snare trap that drags him all over the house. Arkin soon runs into a few less-than-lethal booby traps of his own. There are a ridiculous number of wires and traps in the place.
As Arkin explores for a way out, we see another man with a mask and a knife following him. Arkin finds Michael, who tells him Jill left before all this started, but Victoria and Hannah are still in the house somewhere. He finds Victoria, who tells him to get Hannah out. Arkin has her scream as a diversion so he can get back upstairs. The Collector then arrives and threatens to cut her tongue out.
Arkin finds Michael’s gun and takes the jewels while he’s in the safe. There are no bullets. He also finds a box like the one we saw in the pre-credit sequence. Inside is Larry, also from the pre-credit sequence. “He collects people. He only kills people that he doesn’t want. He only takes one.” Arkin pushes him back into the box and moves on. He goes back for Vicky, but that doesn’t end well for her.
Arkin looks out the window and sees that Jill and her boyfriend have returned. They come in, but they’re too wound up with each other to notice anything. Chad soon learns how bear traps work. Jill finds a wall of spikes.
Arkin finally breaks a window and gets out of the house, but then he looks back and sees that Hannah is inside with the Collector. Arkin grabs Hannah, and they hide in her bedroom.
The Collector knocks out Arkin, and we get a montage of suffering. Arkin soon finds himself strung up by fish hooks. The Collector knocks out one of his teeth. Then he slices Arkin open and pours bugs into the hole.
The police arrive. Turns out, Jill dialed 911 before she died. The Collector and his dog soon deal with them.
Meanwhile, Arkin pulls loose from the fish hooks (ow!). Arkin and the Collector fight, and it all looks very painful. Eventually, they use one of the traps against the Collector and run outside, where Arkin is run over by a police car.
As the paramedics load Arkin into the ambulance, the house explodes. Will anyone believe his story? Arkin tells the cops it was the exterminator that was working on the house, so they go check that out.
The ambulance runs off the road. The Collector opens the door and kills the paramedic. The Collector forces Arkin into one of his boxes and drives off in his exterminator truck.
Commentary
Ow. It’s surprising how effective fish hooks can be.
How many hours would it have taken to set up all those traps? Some of those traps, like the hot glue, would have taken a while to create. Arkin didn’t arrive at the house until around 10:30 p.m. The Collector already had the family tied up, so why bother with all the traps– who was he expecting?
A weird, frantic, screaming-crying sound plays when the Collector is active, but he’s not making that sound; it’s just a movie sound effect. He wouldn’t be anywhere nearly as effective without his sound effect.
There’s lots of gore and a few very creative traps, but most of this makes no logical sense. Why do any of this?
I have mixed opinions on this one. It was bloody and brutal but made no real sense.