The Collector horror franchise has earned itself a cult fanbase, but the status of the anticipated third film The Collected is complicated. The Collector, released in 2009, was the creation of writing duo Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, who worked on several of the Saw sequels. In fact, the project was initially pitched as a Saw prequel, but when that pitch was rejected by franchise producers, the duo decided to make it a standalone property.

Centring as its does on a mysterious masked villain who kills people using complex death traps, The Collector's parallels to the Saw modus operandi are clear. Still, it managed to carve out its own niche, differing just enough in the end to earn its own fandom. The Collector is one of the sickest and most twisted horror villains of all time, as while John "Jigsaw" Kramer had his own moral code, The Collector is just a monster who kills, tortures and maims solely to satisfy his violent urges.

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Emerging as an adversary was thief Arkin (Josh Stewart), who wasn't really a bad guy and gets forced into returning to crime after a prison stint. After two harrowing films, 2012's The Collection ended with Arkin and fellow survivor Elena capturing The Collector. Fans have wanted to see where the story went for almost a decade, but unfortunately, The Collected's release isn't imminent.

The Collected Horror Movie Poster Header Crop

The Collected has indeed been a long time coming, with Dunstan and Melton confirming its development prior to The Collection's release. Perhaps they spoke too soon, as The Collection didn't do as well financially as The Collector, which is said to have stalled forward movement for several years. That was until 2019, when The Collected finally seemed to be on track. Genre icon Tom Atkins (Halloween 3: Season of the Witch) was even cast to play Arkin's father. Filming officially kicked off in September 2019, but a mere eight days into production, everything ground to a halt. According to Dunstan and Melton, The Collected's producer made the decision to stop production, and since then, the duo hasn't been able to get a straight answer as to happening.

That's a unique circumstance for an entry in an established franchise to be in, and the most frustrating thing is no one speaking publicly seems to know what happened or why it stopped filming. If the producer ran out of money, which is the simplest explanation, why not just admit so and let Dunstan and Melton shop it elsewhere? Given the time that's passed, the eight days of footage that has been shot may have to be scrapped to maintain continuity. Whatever happened behind the scenes, The Collected currently looks like it's not happening.

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