{"id":8172,"date":"2024-11-12T00:01:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T05:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8172"},"modified":"2024-11-12T00:01:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T05:01:56","slug":"the-toolbox-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/12\/the-toolbox-murders\/","title":{"rendered":"The Toolbox Murders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Toolbox Murders<\/strong> (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cal-Am Artists\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, gore, language, some sexuality, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Dennis Donnelly\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ann Kindberg, Robert Easter and Neva Friedenn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: George Deaton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gary Graver\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 3, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Pamelyn Ferdin, Wesley Eure, Nicolas Beauvy, Tim Donnelly, Aneta Corsaut, Faith McSwain, Marciee Drake, Evelyn Guerrero, Kelly Nichols.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0How can I ever forget a movie with a title as cool as The Toolbox Murders<\/strong>? It came out when I was 10 and I didn\u2019t even bother asking to see it. I knew the answer would be a hard \u201cNO!\u201d It was definitely an OMDB (Over My Dead Body) title. I didn\u2019t get to see it until I found a copy for $4.99 at K-Mart in \u201991. It was one of those cheapie video cassettes recorded in EP mode. Both the sound and picture quality were bad. What I found most disappointing was that the movie didn\u2019t live up to its awesome title. That\u2019s often the case with movies with great titles. Look at I Dismember Mama. The Toolbox Murders<\/strong> sounds like a bloody slasher flick and while it starts that way, it turns into a creepy psychological thriller in which the killer kidnaps a teenage girl and keeps her tied up.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It all starts with a masked killer showing up at an apartment building and killing off female tenants with a variety of tools from his toolbox. One lady gets drilled. Another gets a hammer claw to the skull. One gets it with a screwdriver. Another gets nailed with a nail gun. The killer sneaks into an apartment where 15YO Laurie (Ferdin, The Beguiled) is doing her homework. He grabs and abducts her. The police question her older brother Joey (Beauvy, The Cowboys) who becomes frustrated and initiates his own investigation into her disappearance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, the killer is revealed to be Vance (Mitchell, Kill Point), the owner of the apartment building. He hasn\u2019t been the same since his own daughter was killed in a car accident the year before. He\u2019s gone insane. He\u2019s filled with a psychotic religious fervor that drove him to kill \u201csinners\u201d. He keeps Laurie bound and gagged in his daughter\u2019s bedroom. We learn he intends to turn Laurie into a surrogate for his late daughter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The two halves of The Toolbox Murders<\/strong> aren\u2019t an easy fit. The shift from slasher to thriller is rather jarring. That\u2019s not to say it doesn\u2019t have its effective moments. A couple of creepy elements- e.g. incest- are introduced to the plot. While slightly unnerving, the second half is the weaker of the two. It\u2019s saved by a campy performance from Mitchell who takes delusional to a different level. He babbles incoherently and sings off-key to his terrified victim. The actor carved out a nice niche for himself as a B-movie actor in the latter part of career with roles in low-budget exploitation flicks like Screamers, Silent Scream and Kill Point. Ferdin is pretty good as Laurie, a typical late 70s teen girl in a horrific situation. She doesn\u2019t overact or anything like that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A subplot about Joey cleaning up the victim\u2019s apartments with Vance\u2019s nephew Kent (Eure, Land of the Lost) yields little in the way of surprise. Why introduce a character like Kent unless he becomes an integral part of the story? It\u2019s no shock he\u2019s mentally unstable too. There\u2019s a high degree of predictability in The Toolbox Murders<\/strong>. It\u2019s not a great film, but if you look at it as a grindhouse movie it kind of works. I can see it being part of a triple bill at some grimy theater in Times Square. The gore scenes are cool. There\u2019s also a scene of a woman pleasuring herself in a bathtub. Yes, you see boobs! This is for the teenage boys (of all ages) in the audience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Dennis Donnelly (his sole feature film), The Toolbox Murders<\/strong> has some pacing problems. It never really finds a consistent tone. Most of the acting is subpar. It\u2019s not unwatchable though. Take it as it is and you might have a little bit of fun. I just wish there was more blood.<\/p>\n

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LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The Toolbox Murders (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cal-Am Artists\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, gore, language, some sexuality, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Dennis Donnelly\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ann Kindberg, Robert Easter and Neva Friedenn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: George Deaton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gary Graver\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 3, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Pamelyn Ferdin, Wesley Eure, Nicolas Beauvy, Tim Donnelly, Aneta Corsaut, Faith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Toolbox-Murders-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8172"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8366,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8172\/revisions\/8366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}