The Toolbox Murders (1978)

0% of critics liked it
(5 reviews)
32% of users liked it
(2,325 ratings)

After a tense, bloody beginning, The Toolbox Murders takes a turn first into TV movie-style suspense and then stumbles towards an incredibly silly conclusion. Despite a sensational reputation amongst splatter fans (including Stephen King, who provides a promotional blurb for the video release's… More After a tense, bloody beginning, The Toolbox Murders takes a turn first into TV movie-style suspense and then stumbles towards an incredibly silly conclusion. Despite a sensational reputation amongst splatter fans (including Stephen King, who provides a promotional blurb for the video release's packaging) the only gore occurs within the first 30 minutes, as a ski-masked maniac cuts a bloody swath through an apartment complex. Four attractive young women are dispatched in harrowing style with a variety of power tools, indicating a killer taking extreme sadistic pleasure in his work. It's no surprise when the apartment owner (Cameron Mitchell) is revealed to be the monster, but his claims of putting the "dirty" women out of their misery quickly doesn't jive with what's been presented earlier. He murders in order to avenge the unrelated car accident death of his only daughter, and to this end, kidnaps a virginal 15- year-old girl to replace her. Unfortunately, his nephew is also fixated on the dead girl, and has his own obsessions. Director Dennis Donnelly did most of his work in TV, thus the preponderance of familiar television faces on display: his brother Timothy Donnelly from Emergency!, Wesley Eure from Saturday morning's Land of the Lost, and Pamelyn Ferdin, a '70s sitcom perennial with many guest shots including The Brady Bunch and The Odd Couple. The incongruity of these appearances, along with the clumsily expressed psychosis of the villains, destroys any sense of dread created at the outset of The Toolbox Murders, and as a result, the only enjoyment that can be obtained from the film is ultimately derisive. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 33 min.
Directed By: Dennis Donnelly
Genres: Drama, Horror

In Theaters: Mar 1, 1978 Wide
On DVD: Sep 3, 2002
Studio: Scary Movies LLC

Critic Reviews

David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
Cameron Mitchell, playing the masked psycho, delivers one of the most obnoxious performances ever in a horror movie...

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Featured Audience Ratings

Lee ?

Supposedly fact-based slasher about a disturbed handyman grieving the loss of his 'perfect daughter' who murders his way through the 'immoral' young women who live in the apartment building he maintains. This 'video nasty' is nasty for the first 20… More
Supposedly fact-based slasher about a disturbed handyman grieving the loss of his 'perfect daughter' who murders his way through the 'immoral' young women who live in the apartment building he maintains. This 'video nasty' is nasty for the first 20 minutes but after that the story plods along without much to scream or squirm about... but that's not to say it's a bad film. After the moderately bloody killings of scantily clad young pretty things early on, the demented porter kidnaps a candidate to replace his beloved daughter and you get into the mind of the nutty villain who's played quite well by Cameron Mitchell. And there's also an unexpected twist at the end so the film ends quite strongly. It's not as shocking as it was hyped up to be, but it's decent and watchable enough.
Jeff "

Dennis Donelly's 1978 Toolbox Murders is viewed by many as the definitive exploitation film. This film is sick, depraved and has no redeeming quality. But what makes it interesting, and worth watching? simply the fact that a masked killer kills his victims with the contents of a… More
Dennis Donelly's 1978 Toolbox Murders is viewed by many as the definitive exploitation film. This film is sick, depraved and has no redeeming quality. But what makes it interesting, and worth watching? simply the fact that a masked killer kills his victims with the contents of a Toolbox. Pretty creative. I saw this film back when I was a teenager and the scene that stuck with me was of course the nail gun scene. The film does tend to suffer towards the end, the film almost becomes unbearable to watch because the killer is just so stupid and ridiculous. I think that the film could have benefited from another rewrite just to make the ending more powerful, but the ending falls flat, and The Toolbox Murders ends up being just an average film.
Luke B

Unfairly treated I would say. There's a lot of problems in this film, most notably the acting, but there is also a lot to appreciate. The pacing is different from most slasher films of the day in being that most of the killing takes place very early on. It works rather nicely as… More
Unfairly treated I would say. There's a lot of problems in this film, most notably the acting, but there is also a lot to appreciate. The pacing is different from most slasher films of the day in being that most of the killing takes place very early on. It works rather nicely as after that the focus can shift onto the mystery of it all. In another rather original turn the killer is revealed to just the audience about half-way through and turns it into a more personal movie about the killer. Overall though the acting just really brings it down, with a laughable reaction to a vibrator being the highlight of the film. The music however is excellent and deserves to be used in something of higher standards. From the instrumentals to the original songs used to incredible effect in the murder scenes it really was quite shocking how something so good could exist in an exploitative slasher film. Beware however you must also venture through a sea of stupid cops and a brain dead brother trying to find his lost sister.
Lafe F

This was bad. I fast-forwarded through most of it. I did like the one scene where the lady was held captive and the killer was playing with a baby doll. It's dark, cheap and sleazy. Oh, it was ugly and trashy too.
Cassandra M

The Toolbox Murders starts out with 20 minutes or so of grisly and very well done kill scenes, all of which involve tools. If you like violence, then you'll love the introduction of this film. I personally don't have a preference when it comes to nudity in horror films… More
The Toolbox Murders starts out with 20 minutes or so of grisly and very well done kill scenes, all of which involve tools. If you like violence, then you'll love the introduction of this film. I personally don't have a preference when it comes to nudity in horror films (since it's overdone and pointless 90% of the time), but if you're a sucker for that sort of thing, then you'll appreciate the introduction to this film for that as well. After the kills are complete, however, many people will be bored by the lack of action that takes place on screen until the final moments of the movie. The middle portion of this movie is a lot of talk with little or no gore. I didn't mind this, because I found the dialog between the killer and the kidnapped girl to be very interesting. "What's it like?" the killer asks, referring to dying. The girl responds that "everything is purple, like a lollipop, and you can't see God, and there are people flying around, and you can see all of their thoughts, and you know the answers to all of their questions, but you can't answer them because nobody can talk." I enjoyed listening to this conversation, and although I'm sure I didn't get it word for word, there is something creative and maybe even worthy in here. Lots of people complain that the acting in this movie is terrible. These people cannot be horror buffs, as I have seen countless other films in which the acting is much MUCH worse. I would go as far to say that the acting in this film is very decent. If you have the attention span to sit through 'slower' moments of this film, then you'll find something to enjoy in it.
Ed Fucking H

Pretty average slasher, involving a ski mask wearing psycho who is dishing out his own brand of justice against the sinners, using fairly average household tools. Has a strong begining and ending, but the middle portion is dull, uninvolving and wearisome. This movie is at it's… More
Pretty average slasher, involving a ski mask wearing psycho who is dishing out his own brand of justice against the sinners, using fairly average household tools. Has a strong begining and ending, but the middle portion is dull, uninvolving and wearisome. This movie is at it's best when people are dying basically. All attempts at rationalization or justification fall flat and fail to entertain. Gore is adequate, nothing to write home about either, but get's the job done. Really this films main draw is seeing creative ways of killing people with tools such as hammers, power drills and nail guns. Worth a watch, but nothing overly special either.