The Toolbox Murders (1978)
The Toolbox Murders is one of those movies that became obscure for a reason. The very sleazy premise is that a guy in a leather coat and a ski mask kills a bunch of women with various tools all in the same apartment complex, then he kidnaps a teenage girl and it’s revealed that the killer is in charge of the complex and has gone insane from the death of his daughter a few years prior so he has kidnapped this girl as a replacement for his dead daughter and killed all those women because they were sinners. But, his creepy nephew is also part of the equation as he tries to keep the girl’s brother off his uncle’s trail so that he can get his uncle out of the way and keep her as his own personal sex slave who escapes and we get a text crawl telling us that this was all based on a true story.
That’s it. That’s the movie, it’s about 20 minutes of what feels like a dry run for Maniac, then what feels like a less interesting version of When a Stranger Calls, then ends like one of Charles B. Pierce’s bogus true story exploitation movies ala The Town That Dreaded Sundown or The Evictors. There’s a certain audacity to how much this movie layers on the trash that seems weirdly appealing but there’s very little beyond that to chew on beyond a few decent gore effects.
The Toolbox Murders (2004)
The remake of The Toolbox Murders, written by Adam Geirasch (who wrote/directed the Night of the Demons remake) and directed by Tobe Hooper, the movie is the story of an old apartment building in Los Angeles where people trying to get into the movie business have stayed since the 1920s. The building’s superintendent claims to live in the apartment where The Black Dahlia lived.
A masked man with a box of tools is going room to room killing people as new tenant Nell (May’s Angela Bettis) sense that something isn’t right. There’s weird noises within the walls, the maintenance man (Adam Geiracsch) is a creep, and the weird runic symbols all over the place seem fishy.
This all builds up to a ghoulish third act filled with secret passages, tons of dead bodies, and creative uses for hand tools. Plus Rance Howard pops up in a few scenes and he’s always great.
Is it a good remake?
The Toolbox Murders is not a remake. Literally the only thing that it shares with the original movie is the concept of a ski-masked killer using hand and power tools to off women. The plot here has to do with a supernatural creature known as The Coffin Baby who is kept at bay by spells built into the building’s wall and keeping him trapped inside. It’s a very solid premise but has fuck-all to do with the 1978 movie and I honestly have no clue if a fan of the original would be put off by the new direction or not.
Does it stand on its own?
It does a decent job. The creative marriage between Tobe Hooper and Adam Gierasch culminated in 3 perfectly enjoyable but not great movies (Crocodile, Mortuary, and this film). It’s got a few great moments, some creative gore gags, and some pretty solid atmosphere but the killer remains fairly undefined and the story underdeveloped. It flirts with being really good but never quite crests that hill.
Watch, Toss, or Buy?
Give it a watch.