Toolbox Murders (1978)

note: This review is for the recent Blu-Ray release of the movie.  For a full review click here.

As a young boy watching TV on a Sunday night I happened across 60 minutes, the long running news show.  What did I see?  Boobies in scene from a movie the anchor said was vile and nasty. It shows a naked lady in a bathtub and intruder with a nail gun.  Great Childhood Memories.

That movie was The Toolbox Murders from 1978. An unknown assailant wearing a ski mask goes on a brutal killing spree at a small apartment complex in Los Angeles. The influences are made fairly clear with a killer slowly wielding his tools of death, this reminds me of Italian Giallos, this film has a sleazy style to it and there will be blood. The most famous of these deaths belongs to Marianne Walter who I mentioned seeing on 60 minutes, she was and is still very attractive lady.  In the scene which begins with her enjoying the hell out of her bath and has her running around nude dodging nails and trying to seduce the masked killer but he isn’t having any of that. The second part of the film is a kidnap/captivity/torture story. I hate to ruin the movie so I wont go into

details but it does reveal the killer and other crazy people. Some feel the sudden ending is somewhat of short-change but its kind of cool to me to end with out the entire story not being explained.

The film itself is an entertaining mix of sleaze and bizarre, over-the-top psychodrama. The Blu-Ray looks great but does have some grain in certain scenes and the audio is pretty good. The extras are a commentary with producer Tony Didio, director of photography Gary Graver, and Pamelyn Ferdin who played the role of Laurie in the movie, I really enjoyed I Got Nailed in 'The Toolbox Murders' (An exclusive interview with Marianne Walter. For every fan of sleaze and grindhouse classics

Another Quality release from Blue Underground, you can learn more about this release and others at http://www.blue-underground.com/

3 ½ out of 4 strongly recommend

reviewed by Steve Benningfield

© Copyright 2010 John Shatzer