The Toolbox Murders (1978)
Director: Dennis Donnelly
Where to get it: House of Mysterious Secrets
In a quiet apartment complex in Los Angeles, a deranged handyman goes on a killing spree, savagely murdering ‘immoral’ women with the tools of his trade – claw-hammers, screwdrivers, power drills and even a deadly nail gun! But these gruesome massacres are just the beginning of this landmark epic of violence and depravity that was vilified by critics, banned by censors, and treasured by splatter fans worldwide. This is… THE TOOLBOX MURDERS!
The original Toolbox Murders is another classic film that I’m a little late to the party on, so when I did pick it up I decided to go with the Blu-ray version that Blue Underground released. And as far as the movie goes, I LOVED the first twenty or so minutes. If you’ve seen this then I’m sure you know what I mean. It kicks off with our ski-mask killer and his trusty toolbox going on a killing spree, killing a few women and some of the women are even nude. It’s fun, it’s kinda dirty, and it’s very blood! Which is awesome. I thought I had hit the jackpot at that point, character development be damn, this was getting good and doing so quickly! Of course then we see the film not just tap it’s breaks, it slams on the breaks, stopping the film dead in it’s tracks.
The film then halts the good stuff for some character development after the killer kidnaps one girls instead of kill her. I won’t go into details on why he does this, but I will say if you couldn’t already tell, who the killer is is never in question. Hell, it even says so above here and on the back of the box. The reason as for “why” is still there and it’s kinda lame. We also have to sit through a scene between the killer and the girl he kidnaps that goes on waaay way too long. And by the time the killing starts back up, it’s not near as fun or as gruesome and the best of the film has already happened. So, it’s not the most exciting film in the world after the first twenty minutes. But it’s still cool for a viewing every now and again. On a side note, I wouldn’t say the audio is all that great in this release, but the picture has it’s moments. It stays about as true to the source as it possibly could. And even if it’s a bit goofy, I did dig the ski-mask look.
(6/10)
Chucks website
