This gruesome thriller is the directorial debut of Marcus Dunstan, who co-wrote the last four Saw films and the Feast franchise. As you might expect, it’s sick, violent and inventive.

Debt-laden handyman and thief, Arkin (played by Josh Stewart from US TV series Dirt) agrees to steal a rare jewel from a posh family’s mansion to stop a local mob boss from hassling his estranged wife and child. But when he breaks into the house, he discovers that a masked psycho has got in there before him and held the family captive by planting hardcore booby-traps made from household paraphernalia.

 How sick is it? Imagine an adult version of the Road Runner cartoons spliced with Home Alone. While this shocker contains the kind of human suffering and carnage normally associated with torture-porn movies, Dunstan manages to avoid being too gross by giving Arkin unexpected moral and emotional depth: once he’s trapped inside the house, he has to decide whether to save himself, or the people getting maimed in imaginative ways.

His dilemna is played out in real time with intense close-up shots and a menacing soundtrack, which heighten the plight of the shit-scared thief. Even though The Collector is a manipulative nerve-shredder, it’s an adrenaline rush designed to appeal to more than just gore-hounds.