Bonehead-XL
"The Toolbox Murders" is, in many ways, the definitive seventies exploitation movie. (Or "grindhouse movie," if you prefer.) It is sleazy, gory, uncomfortable, campy, boring, melodramatic, effortless, completely unpolished, tonally uneven, and only could have been made in the seventies. It is clear that the film's origins rose out of some skid row producer somewhere looking at the numbers "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" made and thinking, "If that's what you can do with just a chainsaw, let's throw the whole toolbox at them!" It even claims to be based on a true story! The movie's opening twenty minutes is the stuff of slasher/gorefest legend and, rightfully, earned the movie a spot on the UK's Video Nasty list. A man enters an apartment complex, at first appearing to be a normal repairman. Soon, he brandishes an electric drill, with a truly scary looking drill bit, and chases the girl around the room. At one point, the killer dons a ski mask, but at an askew angle, distorting the human face even further. A large chested girl in a thin white t-shirt, clearly not wearing a bra, steps into the shower accidentally, wetting her chest, before disrobing further. She gets murdered with a claw hammer. (With the claw end. Because no slasher movie killer ever uses the blunt side of a hammer.) Another girl wanders in, sees the massive rings of blood on the linoleum floor, and is quickly killed with a screwdriver. The film pauses briefly introduces its main heroine, played by kid-star cutie Pamelyn Ferdin, and kidnaps her before launching into its most memorable moment. A sultry redhead, with earrings in and in full make-up, played by future porn starlet Kelly Nichols, slips into the bath, a painfully sappy pop-duet playing on the radio. Her hands slowly sneak under the bubbles, an enthusiastic masturbation session beginning. (This sequence prompted my viewing partner to say, quote: "Grindhouse movies are great.") Completely preoccupied by her self-administration, the radio playing loudly, the killer sneaks into her apartment unencumbered. As she reaches screaming orgasm, the man in the mask enters the bathroom, humming along to the music, aiming an old fashion nail gun at her. In what Stephen King called his favorite death scene in a horror movie, the girl runs around the apartment completely nude, barely avoiding the flying nails. After, unsuccessfully, attempting to bribe the man with sexual favors (Obviously), she is finally nailed. It's not enough to kill her though. The injured woman stumbles against a poster of herself hanging on the wall. The super-cheesy love song crescendos on the radio. The man shoots her in the head with the nail gun. Blood and brain matter splatter over the narcissistic poster. The scenes cuts away as blood drips down into her pubes. This is slasher movie pop-art.Similar to how the only thing people talk, or remember, about "Trilogy of Terror" is the Zuni Fetish Doll, the opening cascade of misogynistic gore is all anyone remembers about "The Toolbox Murder." It's far to say the fame peaks early. The rest of the movie is devoted to Ferdin's brother and the landlord's son investigating the kid sister's kidnapping. The Scooby-Doo teen sleuthing stuff is dull. The movie reveals fairly early that the landlord, B-movie stalwart Cameron Mitchell, is the killer, in a great reveal of the toolbox. He has the girl tied up in his bedroom. While there's not much to the scenes of Mitchell going on about his dead daughter and how corrupt and impure the world is, it is a joy to see him ham it up. Mitchell goes full-crazy, jumping around, lips quivering, very convincingly playing the kind of traumatized, delusional moralizer that you'd expect to go on a power tools themed murder spree. The plot twist at the start of the third act comes out of nowhere but it also revitalizes the movie. Because you can't have a true sleaze-murder flick without a little rape, a hugely uncomfortable sexual assault happens. (Thankfully, it's mostly off-screen.) The story wraps up kind of unsatisfactory while the film tries to convince us it really is based on a true story, no really, seriously guys, we swear.I could probably go into a long diatribe about why we enjoy films like this, what that says about our culture, my specific generation of young people, etc. I won't do that for brevity's sake. If you're looking for an introduction into the sleazy, sometimes disturbing world of grindhouse cinema, I don't think I could find a better one then "The Toolbox Murders." Buy it on Blu-Ray! It features one of my all time favorite taglines: "Bit by bit… He carved a nightmare!" Someday, I'm going to start a horror-themed metal band and make a song based around that one.
acidburn-10
The Toolbox Murders is one of those early pre date slashers that came out even before Halloween and has become well known among slasher fans due to it's entry on the Video Nasty list back in the 1980's, This is a film that I have seen many times, I dunno why I've never reviewed this movie before, no reason just never got round to it."The Toolbox Murders" starts out with a bang, as we get too see various sexy looking women getting murdered in an apartment building, (dunno why people still live there why don't they just move) not that it's a bad thing, just adds extra cheesiness. Hammers and Nail Guns are the weapons of choice favoured by a convincing menacing serial killer, nothing to complain about there and we even get a likable final girl who is quickly menaced by the killer early on and even kidnapped leaving her brother to try and find her and solve the murders. An interesting subplot even.But then this movie takes a sudden dramatic turn, everything that is shown in the first half of this movie, namely the murders, is almost abandoned in the second half, when the killer is revealed and kidnaps the female lead and has her tied to the bed. It's at this point where the movie quickly becomes rather tame and all the fun of the first half has been sucked out here. Okay like I said before we do get a rather interesting sub plot involving her brother attempting to solve what's going on but that's over way too quickly in a rather unsettling twist. Okay I do like the fact that they have attempted to do something different rather than the usual stalk and slash fest, but in my opinion it does feel rather out of place when it comes to the second half of this movie and even when they do try to flesh out some of these characters it's just not enough development in my opinion. And when it comes to the final moments of this film it does kind of fall flat as it tries to be shocking, which does work in a way.The performances in this movie are quite strong especially from veteran actor Cameron Mitchell who gives a chilling yet convincing performance that's rather menacing and yet quite engaging. Pamela Ferdin who plays Laurie is very sweet and convincing.All in all "Toolbox Murders" is a decent enough entry, with an awesome first half just try not to be put off with the second half.
shoddyworksucks
Some reviews call this movie sleazy; to some degree it is. Some might say it lacks action in the last two acts; that's partially true as well. But this film is something different entirely. In the genre of serial killer-exploitation, female characters are routinely objectified. But "The Toolbox Murders" is a rare feminist exploitation film. It twists the genre on it's head and gives it an entirely different angle on female roles in horror.The film starts with some suitably gory murders, seemingly setting the stage for a by-the-books slasher movie. But after these first murders (SPOILERS) the killer kidnaps a young girl and keeps her in his home as his surrogate daughter (his own died in a car accident). The killer reveals that he chose his female victims because of supposed moral transgressions. These transgressions are sins of the "modern woman" (sexual freedom, freedom of choice, etc.) and he wants to keep his new "daughter" as a pure, virginal woman.The movie twists and turns, but it's mostly psychological. It plays with genre conventions, such as a woman's savior almost always being a male figure, and changes them. In the end, she is seen by her attackers as a porcelain doll to be manipulated, not a real human being. (SPOILERS) She eventually is capable of saving herself; no man is needed.The direction is fine, the acting is okay for a low-budget '70's horror movie, but the uniqueness of this film is its greatest quality. Many viewers came to this movie expecting a cookie-cutter serial killer movie, and that's not what "The Toolbox Murders" gives you.
