The Toolbox Murders (1978)

Masterful Movie

Great Film overall

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Movie starts with a very promising rate of about one murder per five minutes. As the title says contents of a toolbox is used for the work and outcome is almost a spoof. Reactions of victims are somewhat wooden. In one scene a drill is used to make a hole to a door much same way as in "Shining" (where an axe is used). "Shining" was released couple years later. Ski mask of the murderer creates interesting face expressions for otherwise silent character in the opening sequence.However after this rather dynamic start the movie loses much of its "attraction". Acting is thoroughly bland. No actor stands out. Wesley Eure (known for "Days of Our Lives") is maybe the best that this movie has to offer. Towards end the movie goes more and more uninteresting. There is an explanation to the motives of murderer - quite pointless in this kind of movie.Music creates interesting contrasts especially in the opening sequence.Not the best of its genre but I would say worth seeing if you like weird horror. 5/10.

Having stated in other reviews I've done that I'm a big fan of slashers and a collector of horror movies, it was pretty obvious, The Toolbox Murders was on my to-review list. I finally got around to watching this movie earlier this year. It had been on my list to watch for a while, but I just didn't get around to it due to whatever reasons, and one of them was, most movies with over blown hype don't live up to expectations. The others were I was just too busy with watching other horror movies I hadn't got watching, but here I am finally after watching it. Whilst The Toolbox Murders certainly didn't live up to its UK "video nasty" status, it was none the less an enjoyable slasher for those who can give it the patience and time it requires. The story unfolds with a series of grisly but relatively not so graphic murders around an apartment block committed by a rather large man in a ski mask. This takes up the first portion of the movie which is around 25 minutes to 30 minutes. The music in the film, is pretty awesome, and that alone has earned it a few extra stars it might not have got had it not of been for the music featured in the movie. I absolutely love the first song played to the first murder scene in the film - it is awesome. Anyway, pretty much after the series of grisly murders which takes place, the movie is slowed down to a crawl in a detective based story to find out what, why and who is doing all these murders. The storyline is not, at best, that great and the movie certainly takes its toll on pace and editing - the latter I believe they didn't do too much of. The acting isn't too bad, but neither is it too good, it's just more or less standard here. As the movie progresses it becomes apparent who the serial killer is, and we get to find out some interesting dialog in the 'bedroom scene' about why he has killed all the people he did, and he tries to justify what he did. The scene itself is interesting to watch, and is probably the best bit of dialog in the whole movie. There's somewhat of a happy ending too.The Toolbox Murders is just one of these movies where if one little thing had of been left out, it wouldn't have been really worth the watch. In this case, it most certainly goes to the music during the first 40 minutes of the movie, which seems to make the film feel more smoothly. It'll definitely take dedicated fans of the slasher/"video nasty" genre to appreciate it, and to give time to allow the movie to slowly pace along after the first 20 minutes or so. If you can bare with it, and appreciate it, The Toolbox Murders will leave you somewhat entertained. Don't believe all the hype though about how violent or shocking it is, by today's standards the movie is not that explicitly violent. It seems rather tame.I can't say I didn't enjoy it or I did enjoy it - it falls somewhere in between and I'll probably give The Toolbox Murders a few more viewings before leaving it in the DVD rack for a while. If it had not of featured the music it does have, it'd probably get a 5 from me, but because the music tremendously makes this movie, I've given it a low-end 7.There's two DVD releases that I know of, and they're the Blue Underground release in the US, and a VIPCO DVD release in the UK. The Blue Underground release has a lot of extra features, is remastered, and is uncut. The VIPCO 2000 UK DVD release is a bare-bones-less-then-average DVD quality release, and is cut by over 1 minute which removes the scene of the girl getting shot in the back and head with the nail gun, and the entire scene where she's in the bedroom pleading with the killer. So I think it's obvious which DVD release to go for. Though, by today's standards, the movie should pass for an '18' in the UK uncut with ease.As I said, it requires patience and understanding to enjoy the movie.

This sick little number has all the poise and artistic elegance of a porno flick, but some truly shocking and memorable sequences and the haunting image that ends this film leave the viewer feeling genuinely disturbed and unnerved, making The Toolbox Murders a movie that ultimately presents its uncompromising vision adeptly.The film is flawed on many fronts, and at times tedious, so this certainly isn't a candidate for the "classic" category. The titular killings all take place within the first half-hour, and after that the pace slows to a crawling bore that The Toolbox Murders almost doesn't recover from.Far too much time is spent on an ultimately pointless police investigation subplot, which does nothing to augment the horror of the admittedly ghastly crimes. Only those familiar with the Hershell Gordon Lewis cult classic Blood Feast will recall ever seeing police officers as inept and clueless as the ones tracking the madman here, who aren't shy about letting potential witnesses walk all over their crime scene, and insist on questioning them while they stand over the brutally maimed corpses of the victims. When the main detective treats one of the film's attempted heroes like a jackass for suggesting that the fact there isn't any forced entry into the murder sites could suggest that the victims knew their killer, we quickly suspect that this is one case that won't be solved by tireless police work.The film resolves its whodunnit two-thirds into the running time, so any suspense in this caper is dissipated far too early. While there is a meager attempt at a twist afterwards, only the well-crafted denouement saves the movie from falling flat at the finish. I'm fairly certain that the film's "based on true events" allegation is a bogus ploy, but the where-are-they-now update at the end is a nifty way to conclude the tale, especially since it runs with the film's eerie final image in the background. The centerpiece of the film is of course the toolbox murders themselves, which are indeed gruesome and gory bits of mayhem. The splatter on display here is unflinching and definitely graphic enough to appease gore-hounds, but the film spends itself too quickly, packing in all of the killings into such a rapid succession that they blur together a bit and desensitize the viewer to the point that the bloodshed ceases being shocking. Had the film-makers drawn the mystery of the murders out more, and spaced them out throughout the film, these scenes could have had much more impact, and when we finally learn the diabolical motives of the killer, the killings themselves become essentially pointless. Although, it should be pointed out that the madman's (madmens'?) true intentions are suitably creepy and horrifying even without the killing spree that precedes them.Some of the film's successes are happy accidents, such as the drab colors and unattractive surroundings the events occur in. Of course, this is more a reflection of the interior decorating trends of the late '70s than a conscious effort by the film-makers to set these ugly deeds in ugly places, but the tone of the film is certainly enhanced by the bleak atmosphere.The music is uniformly great, as well, with both the score and the augmentation of one murder scene with a song called "Pretty Lady" setting a chilling tone for the more heinous segments of the film.While the film is assuredly far too grim and humorless to make this a standard dose of escapist slasher fare, one scene perhaps goes too far and momentarily veers the film into unsavory territory. I've always been unsettled by certain modes of juxtaposing sex with violence that turn up in horror films from time to time. The most blatant example I can think of is of course I Spit On Your Grave, which unabashedly tries to arouse the viewer with horrendously violent carnal images, and we've also seen a great deal of this irresponsible overlapping during the torture porn boom that characterized far too many of the genre offerings of the early 21st century. An extended bathtub masturbation scene in The Toolbox Murders, which shows an attractive actress pleasuring herself with the same thoroughness that the bloodshed in the film is rendered with, is clearly meant to sexually excite the viewer. But when the money shot of this soft-core fantasy is the woman's prolonged and nearly torturous dispatch via nail-gun, there is an uncomfortable ambiguity of intent on the part of the film-makers. Thankfully, the bulk of the film isn't nearly as misogynistic, and the affair as a whole is certainly more manageable as a result.Despite its iffy pace and unpleasant elements, the better aspects of The Toolbox Murders offer it some merited points of interest for discerning horror fans. You probably won't want to visit this blood-soaked apartment complex often, but the film is certainly worth a look.

Take a 70s primetime television director with aspirations to milk off the successes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with a gorier sleazier misogynistic exploitation piece of his own. Add b-movie legend Cameron Mitchell and Welsey Eure (Will Marshall of Saturday morning's Land of The Lost fame) and Pamelyn Ferdin with very realistically disturbing on screen murders involving hand- and powertools, a sexy steaming hot bathtub scene involving female masturbation (featuring future porn queen Kelly Nichols in her debut role under the name Marianne Walter) that leads into one of the most pleasing murder set pieces ever, and for icing one whacky twist that introduces another yet whackier twist. Yeah, it doesn't feature wall to wall gore and the 7 minute body count like later films such as Maniac and Friday The 13th and the ensuing arrival of the notorious slasher in the early 1980s and the toolbox murderer takes no more female victims after the first half hour but this vintage exploitation sleaze left a wonderful taste to my palate. I loved it. SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! Before the final credits when Pamelyn Ferdin is walking like a zombie in a blood drenched dress armed with the scissors in the early dawn across the strip mall parking lot I couldn't resist a sigh and a smile.SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!