Toolbox Murders

2004 "If you lived here, you would be dead by now."
5.3| 1h35m| R| en| More Info
Released: 12 November 2004 Released
Producted By: Alpine Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Young couple Steve and Nell move into a once fashionable but now decaying apartment block in Hollywood, and soon realise that a number of young residents have met unusually violent deaths. Before long, Nell makes some disturbing discoveries about the building's manager and her fellow tenants.

Genre

Horror, Mystery

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Director

Tobe Hooper

Production Companies

Alpine Pictures

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Toolbox Murders Audience Reviews

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
Micitype Pretty Good
KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.
hellholehorror I didn't hate it like I was expecting. It would have been better if it had been gorier but the intense terror also works. Not really a lasting horror but a good one that will make you feel tension and fear even if it is not petrifying. It reminded me of when I was younger and I got scared of being tied up. Not that that ever happened. I was not tied up as a child. I just got scared that I would. This movie has people being tied up and then tortured. Almost like an early Hostel (2005). Lots of dark scenes of torture. I found myself empathising with the character's fear.
jseger9000 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.
melcw592 HA, I have to admit, I've seen some dumb slasher movies. This was the worst one I've ever seen. The plot was so dumb, and it didn't make any sense. Some masked ninja dude starts killing everyone and the police are too dumb to even look for the missing victims. All but 3 people that were at the apartment were killed. The main character girl was a horrid actress; so was pretty much everyone else. Oh yeah, and the murderer was impossible to kill. They shot him, hung him, stabbed him, pushed a wall on top of him, and he still didn't die. He didn't even have a name. He wasn't even a character. Oh yeah and another thing! How could you have like 100 dead bodies in a building without anyone noticing they were missing?? Yeah well there were like a thousand skeletons everywhere, which, by the way, looked SO dumb and fake. I didn't understand the movie at all!! DO NOT EVEN WASTE YOUR TIME WATCHING IT!!
Paul Andrews Toolbox Murders is set in a Los Angeles apartment complex called the Lusman Arms where a young doctor named Steven Barrows (Brent Roam) & his wife Nell (Angela Bettis) move in, it's not exactly five star accommodation but what can you do when your on a budget? It's currently undergoing lots of renovation & so there are lots of tools lying around, some of the Barrows neighbours are a little strange too, however Nell befriends Julia (Juliet Landau) whom seems pretty normal by comparison. When Julia mysteriously disappears Nell becomes worried & feels something is not right, Nell investigates the origins of the hotel & discovers a sinister past. Nell also discovers a vicious killer & she becomes his next target...Directed by Tobe Hooper I thought Toolbox Murders was an average horror film & nowhere near as good as the original The Toolbox Murders (1978) which this remake has virtually nothing in common with besides the attention grabbing title. The script by Jace Anderson & Adam Gierasch has an identity crisis, it can't decide whether it wants to be a straight forward gory Friday the 13th (1980) slasher or a more mystery orientated who dun-nit like Scream (1996) & frankly it disappoints on both fronts. For those looking for blood, gore & death you would be best advised to watch the original & those seeking a good mystery should watch something like I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), there is definitely better out there. The film is a mish-mash of ideas that don't quite gel together including some supernatural elements that strangely go nowhere, the killer himself also disappoints. Again this remake differs in this respect with a completely different killer & their motives & identity are nothing like the original, in this film he is just some deformed freak who just 'is', nothing more nothing less & that's what it boils down too. This is nothing more than a basic slasher with some out-of-place mystery elements that are almost irrelevant. Having said that it's an OK watch with a few decent moments here & there but overall it's nothing to get that excited about.Director Hooper does OK, I felt the film was a bit flat looking & could have used a bit more visual flair & a bit more style especially considering that such an experienced filmmaker like Hooper was behind the camera. The climax is quite well done though with plenty of rotten corpses strewn around & these scenes have a The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) feel about them. The gore is tame & the body count low, someone has their head bashed in with a hammer, someone has a drill shoved through their head, someone gets pumped full of nails when the killer uses a nail-gun on her, someone has their face burned off with acid & someone has the top of their head cut off, it sounds gory & exploitative but it's pretty bloodless & stretched out at nearly 100 minutes isn't enough.Technically Toolbox Murders is alright, it's generally well made with decent production values but there's nothing particularly special on show here. The acting is OK but again nothing special.Toolbox Murders is an average slasher with a hint of mystery which comes to nothing, I can't say I particularly liked it but at the same time I can't say I particularly hated it. Average at best & nowhere near as good or as exploitative as the sleazy original.