What is quite rare, though, is the film itself inspiring horrific crimes.
How Could ‘The Collector’ Inspire a Real-Life Killer?
Freddie’s perspective as our point-of-view character feels slimy, but the film itself is remarkably still and quiet.
Image by Nimesh Niyomal Perera
At times,The Collectoris almost boring, but that’s a feature, not a bug.
And there’s something brilliant in so unflinchingly showcasing how boring and insignificant these kinds of people really are.
Freddie Clegg is, from a narrative structure standpoint, the unambiguous protagonist ofThe Collector.
Image Via Columbia Pictures
The film follows him, he narrates the story he’s the titular character after all.
Clegg is not theunseemly-but-charming kind of off-puttingyou see in characters likeHannibal LecterorFreddy Krueger.
While Freddie is vile, he doesn’t inspire fear so much as a desire to smack the guy.
Stamp plays Freddie Clegg with a boyish physicality that reads almost ridiculous on his gangly frame.
The underrated crime movie brilliantly explores the inevitability of death.
Freddie is socially awkward to the extreme, but not in a way that incites pity.
A reclusive bank clerk with a passion for collecting butterflies abducts a young art student, imprisoning her in his basement in hopes she’ll develop feelings for him.
But even worse than that, he’s whiny.
Miranda tries to play along with his game of “romance,” and he actively resents her efforts.
Miranda tries to convince him that, if freed, they could be friends.
He goes off on little rants about how he never had any advantages in life.
Oscar Wilde once wrote, “It is absurd to divide people into good and bad.
Freddie Clegg is not one of them.
But that is, perhaps, the point.
What Did Robert Berdella Do?
One cannot speculate as to the real motivations ofa real-life serial killer.
There is no charm, nor strength, nor resilience to find inspiring in Freddie Clegg.
A consistent theme of Freddie’s character inThe Collectoris how he dehumanizes Miranda.
Freddie may give lip service to love and marriage as a goal, but that’s simply a cover.
He seeks to possess Miranda solely as an object.
Berdella is incredibly open about having a similar perspective on his victims.
This perspective would enable Berdella tokidnap, torture, and murder at least six young men.
Berdella was meticulous in his documentation of the torture he inflicted upon his victims.
Each photo documented some form of torture or murder.
And more than the six identified victims were present in Berdella’s collection.
Berdella’s victims were mainly young men experiencing housing insecurity.
Many of his victims boarded with him before Berdella’s attack.
Berdella’s victims, like Miranda Grey, were marginalized.
