It’s always a sad day when films with great potential fall by the wayside, and such is the case with The Collected, the concluding chapter of a trilogy of gruesome horror movies. Some new images have now surfaced from the brief production, torturing us with a glimpse of what might’ve been.
The series is the brainchild of Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, who wrote the fourth through seventh Saw movies, and directed by the latter. This third installment was to follow The Collector and The Collection, released in 2009 and 2012 respectively, revolving around the actions of a ‘collector’ of people who rigs buildings with death traps to kill everyone except a lone survivor, whom he takes. The sequel ended on a cliffhanger that the closing tale was to resolve, and these images below, taken from the website of production designer Molly Coffee, give some idea of what was in store for us.
As well as the familiar shots of dimly lit basements and captures of human suffering, some architectural plans detail the precise specifications of the sets, demonstrating that such constructions aren’t just thrown together but meticulously designed and built to purpose. Each of these is accompanied by its physical realization, making you marvel at how black lines and shading sketched onto A3 paper can be transformed into as essential an aspect of the experience as the blood and viscera.
Filming began in 2019 but was suspended for unclear reasons after only eight days of shooting, and despite reports in December last year that production was to resume, Dunstan and Melton stated in April that their optimism for finishing had been greatly diminished by their attempts to contact producers going unanswered, as well as most of the film’s props having now been stolen. As a result, The Collected will probably never be completed despite the wonderfully gory and creepy experience that these pictures demonstrate it was swiftly shaping into.
