La foreuse sanglante

I never thought an actor from a campy Saturday morning kids show (Land of the Lost) could find a project even worse, but here we are! I saw this movie at the drive-in back in 1978. Bad acting? Yes! Bad script? Yes Bad lighting and sound? Yes. Horror? A little bit thanks to an item we all have in our homes, a toolbox. Cheap, expliotive trash like this can be enjoyed on a certain level if you check your brain at the door. I think everyone involved in this movie had a late payment on their new car pending or were dire need of some quick cash. Wesley Eure mutters the funniest line in the whole movie! After examining blood stains around an apartment in a rather inquisitive manner he finds a vibrator and picks it up and says "disgusting"! Blood and brains on the wall is okay but I guess a sex toy was just too much for his delicate psyche. Speaking of which the scene in which the victim uses her toy in the bathtub was quite erotic for a 1970's film. Cute, perky Pamelyn Ferdin was attempting to break into adult roles after years of playing kids roles but she should have held out for a better part or at least a more memorable one. Her character gets kidnapped and spends most of the movie gagged, I guess she did get an early copy of the script! After viewing this movie again the 90's I wanted to go to my toolbox and beat myself over the head with my rubber mallet.

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. I give The Toolbox Murders an 8/10.

While this is no flawless masterpiece it is still an entertaining enough slasher that has a simple straight-forward plot, and the killers MO of killing with various tools is an interesting one. For fans of the genre this should be solid entertainment.

Which tool will he use next and how?

Not in the toolbox, a vibrator used in a highly erotic scene

Fun.

"Banned since 1982" screams the video box. After sitting through an hour and a half of this crud you'll be lining up to have it banned for another twenty years. Not because it's controversial, too violent, or objectionable in any way (except perhaps aesthetically), but simply to save your fellow movie watchers from having to experience this incoherent, pointless mess. And it is a MESS. Badly written, directed and acted, with no redeeming features. And I LIKE horror folks.

The first 20 minutes or so features a series of murders of young women by various items from a toolbox - drill, hammer, nail gun,etc. (why a toolbox you ask? Good question...). The victims are all attractive and seem to share a taste for MOR country music. The killer wears a ski mask and sometimes hums to himself. (Maybe he's a country purist and is offended by their lack of Hank Williams?)

Anyway, after that the movie rapidly gets duller and duller, a girl gets kidnapped, some inept cops investigate the murders and are baffled, even though you'll pick the killer as soon as you see him. B-grade legend Cameron Mitchell hams it up sucking a lollipop and singing spirituals, and the faceless supporting cast are as bad as the stinker of a script. If you haven't seen 'The Toolbox Murders' well, you haven't missed anything much. Not even bad enough to be funny.