Toolbox Murders

Not really a remake of the 1970s THE TOOLBOX MURDERS, yet alone a sequel. This entry goes in totally a different direction with only a couple things that look like they were taken from the original concept; choice of location, the killer using all manners of tools on his victims and hiding his appearance under a ski mask. Tobe Hooper is in the director's chair and presents a grimy little picture on a minimalist budget. The backdrop for this horror takes place in a rundown, if history-laced apartment building situated in the heart of old Hollywood, where there's an assemble of indie actors portraying a varied bunch of stock characters. Other than Angela Bettis, no one else gets much to work with and are outperformed by the complex. Here we follow Bettis' character. A new resident that just moved in along with her husband, as she tries to settle in with her neighbors, but something about the apartment doesn't feel right and people seem to be disappearing.

The first hour is all about the character quirks, and interactions between the apartment inhabitants centered on a solid Bettis' performance. This is used as a tool to make her character feel like an outsider, who needs to learn the inner workings of her surroundings before making rash conclusions. Over time the mystery and oddities of the building becomes the focal point of the story. Sure, there are a few meaty death set-pieces thrown in early, but it's not until the backend when that comes into its own. The building's charms make way for horror and unease, as it begins to (although not convincingly) shed light on its looming secrets and the mysterious phantom killer. The by-the-book tropes are there with the central character trying to convince others, with no luck that something menacing is happening in the building. It even tries to throw you off with a predictable red herring or so, but they don't add up make it effective enough. Come to the third act it moves away from a straight-forward mystery-slasher hitting over-the-top Grand Guignol territory by ratcheting up the intensity and cruelty of its visuals. The killer gets out the big boys to inflict torturous punishment e.g. circular saw, vice grip, acid and bolt cutters. There even seems to be a little "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" homage involving meat hooks.

A slow and particular beginning eventually transpires into a bloody whirlwind. In the plot's attempts to explain what's going on, the occult and black magic, I found it to be rather lacking and muddled in making sense of it all. There wasn't anything really there to connect these pieces, leaving me with more questions than before. Some contrivances and logic lapses (rotting corpses hidden in the walls, but no stench?) keep popping up, but I did enjoy old school shocks and aesthetics oozing dirt and grime in such a confined space. Visually it doesn't hit you, it's beyond drab and causally photographed, yet Hooper's workmanlike handling did a marvelous job crafting out atmosphere and character from the age-old apartment building. While it might take awhile to come out first gear, when it does, Hooper goes down the excessive route with a climax that really leaves you hanging.

I recently saw this remake last weekend in LA, during which it was being shown on a limited sneak peak basis. Apparently, it's still in limbo on weather to go as a theatrical release or direct to video.

What I got was a well crafted horror remake that drifted away from the original. Yes, it's a remake, but Tobe (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1&2) Hooper makes this picture all worth while. As we address the title of the film, all is implied with a hammer, a vice, a nail gun and a drill. Those tools are to just name a select few. The story takes place in LA, where a young couple move into an old run down apartment complex that is also rented out to tenants that are wannabe actors and sleeze bag drug users. One by one, they fall victim to our Toolbox Murderer.

It's not my favorite Hooper film, but it's a lot better compared to "Crocodile" and "The Mangler." I particularly am pleased with the gory death scenes, as well as the style of Hooper's directing. That apartment complex that was used was just awesome. Overall this slasher flick delivered in such a way that I'd like purchase it for my horror collection.

8/10 Way to go Tobe!!

This remake was surprisingly enjoyable, despite the low IMDb rating, and perhaps Tobe Hooper's best work since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Mix some elements of Polanki's Apartment Trilogy with some from TCM, and throw in a few inventive, violent kills à la the original Toolbox Murders, and you have a rather enjoyable horror movie. Also adding to it is the good performance from up and coming horror starlet Angela Bettis. The killer was pretty cool too; I liked how giddy he was after sprinkling lye on some guy's face, held down by a vice, Casino style! I can only wish I enjoyed my work so. Of course, it's not a flawless movie. The plot maybe could have used a bit more work but if you just go with it, it's really a minor complaint. The DVD has two commentaries (one with Hooper!), deleted scenes (mostly more graphic shots of the kills), a short interview with Hooper, and some trailers, including the great one for High Tension! I'm glad I bought it, despite a hefty $20 tag.

In 1974 Tobe Hooper directed the original horror masterpiece "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and created and instant name for himself. But over the past few decades he really hasn't done anything to write home about. Except that in 2004 he directed Angela Bettis in a remake of the 1978 film "The Toolbox Murders".

This new version stars Bettis as Nell as she and her husband move into the Lusman Arms apartment complex in Los Angeles. The complex in under an extensive renovation and is a complete mess, but they have a doorman. The story feels like a lost film from Roman Polanski, drawing a lot from the themes of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Tenant". The story also throws in a bit of old Hollywood noir, as the apartment building was the former residence of the infamous Black Dahlia victim Elizabeth Short. The building is a character in itself as a dark and foreboding presence. The movie was shot at the old Ambassador Hotel which has a pretty storied past in itself. The Lusman Arms is the place where young actors come with dreams of making it big. Although Nell is a school teacher and her husband Steve and med student.

From the first scene of the movie we know that there is a ski masked maniac in the building who is killing off the resident and things seem to point towards Ned the quiet and creepy young maintenance man who kind of looks like Jack White. Like the original film he kills his victims with various tools in his toolbox, so yeah the title is pretty self explanatory.

Nell immediately gets the creeps about the place, but its so affordable since they have to live in a construction zone. We get to know a lot of the residents from an old man who has lived there for 60 years, to the young couple that is always fighting, and the middle aged couple with a teenage son. After hearing a bunch of screaming from next door Nell calls the cops, but they find nothing. She is all alone with her mind allowed to wonder and with the paper thin walls she can't get a moment of silence. As the terror and suspense increases Nell starts to investigate the history of the Lusman Arms. Acting on a tip from the Old Man she find that each floor is missing a room and that something sinister lurks within the walls.

This is a fun little movie that is all about Angela Bettis and her character Nell as she fights for not only her life but for her sanity. The "Toolbox Murders" DVD is available online or from Netflix and includes a couple of commentary tracks and some deleted scenes. So I guess you should put the Hot Pocket down and go watch this movie.

This is such a great horror-film, and it has some original-twists to it too. The story centers-around the "Lusman Arms" (really the Ambassador Hotel, once THE place for the Hollywood elite and the site of the RFK assassination), a decaying-Hotel in a seedy part of Los Angeles. It seems after recent-renovations to the structure of the building there have been some strange-occurrences: a workman hurt in an unexplained-blast, and strange electrical-surges. There is a constant-sound of hammering, even when the workmen are gone. Tenants have gone-missing, and a strange aura of oppressiveness has descended-upon the building. It seems the place has a reputation that the building manager (a concierge) doesn't want known. It's just a great film, with a bunch of oddball-characters, unlike the log-jam of boring, PG-13 pseudo-horror. The characters in this film feel real, and I like them. Because I like them, I fear for them, and that is what horror is about.

Enter Nell (Angela Bettis of "May") and Steven, two new tenants. We get to know them and some of their backstory, and the decaying-Lusman is literally filled with oddities. For those who have lived in a 1920s-era apartment building, a lot of the funny-parts about maintenance (or the lack-of) will be familiar! If you have ever lived in an old-building, you can attest to the impressions of the past within-the-walls. The ghosts of "old Hollywood" haunt this film, just like they do the films of David Lynch or Kenneth Anger. Let's face it, with the legend of the Black Dahlia (mentioned in the film), the constant-battle for the control of the water-supply (an engineer once controlled L.A. His name was William Mulholland, and designed the Owens Valley Acqueduct), the Manson Family, gangs, poverty, the desert air, all the Hollywood deaths and scandals, cults, Scientology, the Mexican Day of the Dead, Chinatown, drugs, the Ramparts scandals, decades of obscene-corruption--Los Angeles is creepy.

Nell notices a lot of hammering and other strange-phenomena, and eventually begins to probe the mystery of the Lusman Arms. This descent-into-hell is what makes this not merely a slasher, but an Occult-horror piece. The Lusman has a strange, esoteric architecture and a storied-past. It also has mysterious symbols covering it's walls in key-locations. The logical-sequence of room numbers are missing some rooms. Some have commented that the symbols are "Masonic", even calling the film "Masonic-horror", which is false and misleading. The symbols are ancient, and have been around for thousands of years, and most should be familiar. I noticed absolutely nothing "Masonic" in the film whatsoever, which is odd. I guess they were reviews by Nazi-skinheads.

The best-part of this story is that it connects the enigmatic-tale of Jack Parsons, an occultist Crowley-devotee who founded the Jet-Propulsion Lab, being an early rocketeer. It is said that Parsons claimed to have created an "homunculus", an artificial human-being, so there is a genuine-connection with L.A.'s strange-relationship with occultism here. Parsons blew-himself-up in an alchemical experiment in the late-1940s--exactly where the "Lusman-mythos" begins. Without Jack Parsons, there would be no Scientology: L. Ron Hubbard ripped-him-off in a business-deal and used the money to fund the publishing of "Dianetics". I think the occult-backstory of the killer was Tobe Hooper's idea, and it really draws-you-in. "Occult" comes from archaic-Greek, and merely denotes "hidden", nothing-more. There are many hidden-secrets at the Lusman.

The murderer in the film is great, and one could consider it Parson's homunculus in-a-way, though the "coffin-birth" masks this element. I actually thought the "coffin-baby" backstory was interesting, and had the ring of occult-lore to it. Frankly, I would have to agree with some reviewers--if you aren't familiar with occultism, you aren't going to get a lot of the premise here. So, get-familiar kids, study the occult, hah-hah. Nonetheless, it's still a film you can watch superficially, enjoying the many mysteries that Hooper and his writers treat us to. Also, the murders-themselves are pretty original and thrilling, some even gruesome in a way that would do Argento proud! Go-figure, reality isn't what you thought it was! Without giving-away too much, this is a tale of the undead, kept-active by sacred-geometry in the structure of a building. It is a story of the darkness and mystery that surrounds-us, and a story of magic and curiosity. There are so-many incredible images of horror in this film, it is just excellent and intriguing. With a budget of less-than $1 million, Tobe Hooper has created a new classic horror that is likely to be imitated. It is surely "better" than the original film, and is simply his and his writers' take on the source (with major-revisions and additions). It is a re-imagining. The score by Joseph Conlan is very good, and atmospheric, hitting all the right marks. It makes the film feel larger. Toolbox Murders has a lot on-offer for such a little film, and is a great return-to-form for Mr. Hooper. Here's to more from him.