A serial killer, plagued by the memory of a fatal car accident, uses various tools to murder female tenants of a Los Angeles apartment complex, then abducts a teenaged girl who lives there with her family. When the police express doubt that the murders are connected to the girl's disappearance, her brother sets out to search for her on his own.
Has its moments of creepiness especially with the killer and his kidnapped teenage victim, and the opening murders were pretty brutal, but the scenes in between with characters I couldn't care less about, was a tad dry. As exploitation movies go, it's okay. 2.75/5
Effective low-budget slasher beat Halloween to theaters in 1978
At a Los Angeles apartment complex, four women are murdered by various tools and a girl is missing. Whos the psycho doing the killing and WHY? Cameron Mitchell (Vance), Wesley Eure (Kent) and Nicholas Beauvy (Joey) head the cast.
"The Toolbox Murders (1978) is an obscure early slasher that only cost $165,000, but its professionally made and doesnt seem too low-budget. It beat the hailed Halloween to theaters by almost eight months and, in my opinion, is just as worthwhile if you appreciate slasher flicks.
Its a sordid affair with a couple exploitive bits, but it explores interesting themes underneath the typical slasher plot. For instance, the opening features a ...
This infamous little slasher flick with the infamous little title is full of blood, violence, and nudity. It is everything you expect from something of this ilk. Supposedly based on a true story, four women in an apartment building are brutally murdered by items normally found in a toolbox. The killer (and the film makers do not hide this fact) is Cameron Mitchell, the building owner. Mitchell is a religious nut who recently lost his daughter in a car accident. He then begins punishing "sinful" women. The last third of the film sees the deaths of two major characters, and wraps things up nicely with the end credits crawl describing what happened to the "survivors" of this "real life" crime spree.
Although rated (R), this is some very vio...