10 Home Invasion Horror Movies With A Twist
8. The Collector (2009)
Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan's The Collector (2009) offers a deafening one-two punch that swings the film's narrative 180 degrees early on, and never quite lets us regain our footing.
Josh Stewart (who eagle-eyed fans may recognise as John Pilgrim from Punisher's second season) stars as Arkin O'Brien, a man seriously in debt and also in the employ of a seriously wealthy family. Planning a modest heist, in which he intends to make off with one of the family's jewels, Arkin accidentally walks in on a home invasion, in which a masked man has booby-trapped the mansion and imprisoned the family. This masked man is the titular Collector, and he collects – you guessed it – people.
It may not be the best home invasion flick out there, but the early twist offers a streak of ingenuity that few other films have a) attempted, and b) successfully pulled off. While it would be sacrilege to compare this film to Psycho (1960), the original shattered-narrative slasher set the stage that The Collector performs on, and more modern offerings such as Saw (which this was originally pitched as a prequel for) give it the meat to tear from its bones.