Toolbox Murders (2004)

Every year thousands of people move to Hollywood to pursue their dreams. Some succeed. Some go home. Others just... disappear. There are bad apartments-rats bad plumbing crazy landlords-and then there's the Lusman building. Something evil lives deep in the building itself...something that needs to keep killing to stay alive.System Requirements: Running Time 94 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 031398172178 Manufacturer No: 17217 Product Description

2.49 STARS: Sufficient, but amazingly unexceptional.

Tobe Hooper is without a doubt one of the greatest horror movie directors the genre has ever seen. With movies like "Salem's Lot", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "The Funhouse" and "Poltergeist" under his belt, it's safe to say that his place as a director in the hall of fame of horror movie directors is secure. However, we also have Hooper to thank for the asinine "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2" as well. Oh well, I guess nobody's perfect. Indeed, one viewing of Tobe Hooper's "The Toolbox Murders" only confirms this fact.

At any rate, Tobe Hooper took a shot at a remake of sorts in "The Toolbox Murders" which is actually a remake of a trashy exploitation film known as "The Toolbox Murders" (1978) which is notorious for its mysogynistic themes. In the remake, a couple move into a rather rough looking apartment building of considerable "charm" as its landlord would suggest. Angel Bettis stars as Nell, our protagonist, who attempts to solve the mystery of the killings in her apartment building. As you hopefully have already figured out, all of the murders in this film are committed with a tool out of the ole toolbox. Anyway, it's up to Nell to save the day and solve the mystery behind the toolbox killings.

The acting is pretty good in "The Toolbox Murders" for the type of people the movie was trying to portray, and the plot execution is satisfactory; however, I found myself strangely indifferent about the fate of the characters. Despite Angela Bettis' adequate acting, she really is annoying, but then again so is the rest of the cast. At any rate, the story and script are also sufficient in this movie, but there is nothing exceptional about "The Toolbox Murders" in any way, shape or form. "The Toolbox Murders" is one of those movies you really cannot criticize but, at the same time, you really cannot laud it either. Basically, "The Toolbox Murders" is a bit of a throw-back to old slasher days with a mysterious yet sinister killer with an affinity for tools and this particularly awful high-rise apartment. The murder scenes are not too bad either as there is some blood and gore to be had in this film, but certainly nothing to write home about. In a sense, there is some suspense about the identity of the killer and his motives, but some fans may be disappointed in what they ultimately get. I actually liked the mystery behind the killer and his strange connection with the apartment building as I think the movie benefits from this aspect, but not enough to put this movie over the top. The prowess of the killer is also impressive and fits in rather nicely with the story. That being said, "The Toolbox Murders" seems to be completely lacking that special something that makes good horror movies great.

"The Toolbox Murders" represents one of those "middle of the road" horror flicks which really does not try anything new, but to its credit, attempts to get back to the good of yesteryear for the horror genre, and relishes in its own simplicity. Of course, the problem is that the concept behind this film has been executed bigger and better from a style standpoint as well as substantively in horror films that came before it. Moreover, "The Toolbox Murders" lacks essential atmospherics that create tension in the audience which is so important to making a horror movie scary. Unfortunately, "The Toolbox Murders" really is not that scary, but there is plenty of violence. It just goes to show you that the devil is in the details when it comes to horror. In other words, it is not necessarily what happens in a horror movie that scares the audience, but rather it is the way in which it happens and the atmosphere which surrounds those circumstances that really scares the viewer...this is the kind of horror movie that I am after and, unfortunately, there are so few of these that actually exist, much less coming out of today's Hollywood. (I know I should give up, but the quest continues.)

The creative genius of Tobe Hooper was certainly not on display in "The Toolbox Murders". Still, this movie has some merit to it in its own simplicity. After all, it is certainly a lot better than most of today's trash. With some exceptions, Hooper largely accomplishes what he set out to do in "The Toolbox Murders" substantively-speaking, but, perhaps, he should have been a little more ambitious by being a little more original and imaginative in his presentation and style.

Well, in concluding this review, I must say that The HorrorMan is feeling like Santa Claus on this April Fool's Day, so 2.49 STARS for "The Toolbox Murders" even though it probably doesn't quite deserve it. What can I say? I wanted to like it more than I did, but it is what it is. April 1, 2008

Loved it!

I was so suprised by this movie! It was one of the best slasher flicks I've seen in a long time. Yes, there are some HUGE plot holes that don't get filled in even a little, but it makes up for it with it's grusome killings decent acting, and a super creepy setting. This is going on my to buy list! March 20, 2008

Tobe Hooper Film

I have not seen the original "Toolbox Murders" film. This film though is very good. It almost had an 80's horror movie feel to it. The acting is good and the fright level was much greater than I had expected. I bought this movie for the simple fact that Tobe Hooper's name is on it. I was not disappointed. Great Horror film. February 22, 2008

Pretty darn good

I'm not much a Tobe Hooper fan. Aside from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Salem's Lot I haven't liked any of his movies (unless you want to give him credit for Poltergeist). I therefore wasn't expecting much when I picked up his remake of The Toolbox Murders.

I haven't seen the original, so I can't say how this remake compares, but on its own, this movie is a winner. A young couple moves into a rat trap old building in Hollywood. He's an intern and is gone most of the time leaving Nell Barrows with too much time on her hands. She finds out some strange things about the building's history and unbeknownst to all, somebody is murdering the tenants.

Right from the beginning when the camera is filming through a sheet of plastic in the rain, it manages to give off a downright unsettling atmosphere. A fantastic job was done lighting the creepy old building, making every shadow seem threatening. Everything feels old, grimy and unpleasant. The music is surprisingly good. There is the usual 'string swell' to make you jump, but otherwise it works well to ratchet up your nerves. The whole movie is an exercise in tension.

Really the only bad part about this movie is the whole 'toolbox murders' gimmick. The story really stands on its own and is good enough without the different tool for each murder shtick. If the killer just used a knife or something, that would have worked just as well. It felt like they needed to throw in the unusual murder weapons to keep the name.

Still, this was a pretty good movie. I'd recommend it to fans of old fashioned '70's and '80's horror movies. They don't make many like this any more. January 23, 2008

Surprisingly good.

Toolbox Murders (Tobe Hooper, 2004)

One of the recent rules of thumb I've been using to decide which movies I want to watch is that if it contains Angela Bettis, it can't be completely irredeemable. (We'll put aside the monstrosity that was Girl, Interrupted for the time being.) So when I saw Bettis' name attached to a Tobe Hooper joint, I figured it was worth a look. And while it wasn't as brilliant as I was hoping it would be, it was certainly a good deal of fun.

Bettis plays Nell Barrows. She, along with her husband Stephen (Brent Roam, perhaps best-known for now as a recurring character in the early days of The Shield), movie into an old building in Hollywood while Stephen does his medical residency in a nearby hospital. From the start, we know there's something weird about the building; in the opening scene, before we ever meet Stephen and Nell, one of the building's residents (Sheri Moon in one of her few non-Rob-Zombie-film appearances) is murdered by the building serial killer in an inventive, and rather grotesque, way. In addition, the building is undergoing extensive renovation, which leads to the set designers being able to play around with bare concrete, plastic, and the like. But I digress. Nell, currently unemployed, makes an attempt to meet some of her new neighbors, but oddly enough, they start disappearing pretty much as soon as she meets them. First next-door neighbor Saffron (Never Been Kissed's Sara Downing) disappears; her boyfriend Hans (Goldfinger guitarist Charlie Paulson) assumes she's taken off with another beau. Then Nell's new running partner Julia (Ed Wood's Juliet Landau) misses a running date. And Stephen is off at the hospital, so what's an overimaginative, unemployed young woman to do? Solve the mystery, of course, with the help of Chas (Georgia Rule's Rance Howard), who's lived in the building almost as long as it's existed.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this movie was that it uses its low budget wisely, as so few horror films do these days. Hooper, who is of course best known for directing a low-budget horror picture (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), seems to have recaptured the spirit of low-budget filmmaking; savage, but very low-lit, special effects. I'm not sure why, but some of the death scenes on this movie were quite disturbing to me (in a "my God, I can't believe he tried to get away with that in an R-rated movie!" sense). For example, in the opening sequence, in which our damsel in distress is done in with a claw hammer, we get the usual cut-away shots you find in low-budget slasher films-- blood splashing onto the wall, the window, etc.-- but we also see the killer wielding the hammer, and there's a clump of skin/hair/etc. stuck in the claw. Which is logical, given the situation, but it's the kind of thing you rarely, if ever, see in this sort of scene. Not quite as surprising, but just as pleasant, is the caliber of the acting from the principals here. Yeah, there's overacting, as there's bound to be in any Tobe Hooper flick, but that just makes Bettis' rather quiet slide into nervous breakdown all the more appealing. Co-scriptwriter Adam Gierasch, who plays the building's maintenance man Ned, is also quite wonderful. (In fact, to me the film's biggest failing is that more wasn't done with Ned's character.) Most of the rest of the cast are at least competent, if not stellar.

Tobe Hooper's best film in the past two decades. *** ½
December 20, 2007

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