The 1970s kickstarted the slasher horror genre with such cinematic gems as Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Producers and directors, realizing there was a market for these films, started churning them out. However, most lacked the quality of the two seminal hits.
1978’s The Toolbox Murders is just one example of a film trying to capture the thrills of Halloween and Chainsaw but failing. Miserably. You have a killer (who doesn’t know how to don a ski mask properly) killing a woman in a Los Angeles apartment complex. He uses instruments from a toolbox (nail guns, drills, screwdrivers, etc) to do this, hence the name of the movie. The story is muddled, the film’s editing makes it almost unwatchable, and the only thing the film has in common with the works of John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper is the body count. (Notably, Tobe Hooper would remake the film in 2004, with slightly better results).
The film has amassed a cult following over the years since its release. With a scene featuring former pornographic actress Kelly Nichols pleasuring herself in a bath (before taking a nail to her skull), gratuitous nudity that has nothing to do with the plot, and the film is based on a true event that nobody can actually confirm, it’s not hard to see why. This one is only for the true horror hounds, and champions of the “video nasty” genre. Recommended only for hardcore horror sections in public library collections.
Discover more titles with our list of horror movies.