THE TOOLBOX MURDERS is one of the nastier grindhouse horror movies to achieve commercial success and attain an enthusiastic cult following.
A series of bizarre murders begins taking place in a Hollywood apartment complex, and the victims are exclusively independent young women. Eventually (SPOILER ALERT), we come to realize that the murders are being committed by the hotel's manager (Cameron Mitchell), who is targeting "immoral" young women as his victims.
It seems that his daughter was killed in a car crash after having gotten involved in sex and drug related activities. He is now on a crusade to rid the world of women who have gone down a similar path. In a genuinely twisted subplot, he has become obsessed with a virginal girl in one of the apartments, whom he fantasizes as replacing his daughter. He kidnaps her and keeps her tied to his bed while he goes out and hammers and nail guns his victims.
It leads up to one of the most harrowing and unsettling finales I've ever seen in this type of movie. As you can tell, the plot itself is as sordid as one could have thought up. Although it isn't nearly as vile as, say CANNIBAL FEROX or I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, TOOLBOX MURDERS is the kind of slasher movie that makes me reluctantly understand women's groups denouncing the entire subgenre. I don't agree with them, but I can see their point when I watch the movie.
While there's no question that the movie is sexist, it never crosses the line into rampant misogyny. Even the movie's now infamous highlight, in which a nude woman is chased throughout her apartment by the nail-gun wielding killer, the victim manages to keep her cool and even tries to reason with the killer (albeit unsuccessfully) despite being in a most vulnerable position.
There is enough style to make things interesting and it moves along at a decent pace, so it never gets boring. It's no Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE, but it delivers what it promises, something that too many horror movies fail to do.
A series of bizarre murders begins taking place in a Hollywood apartment complex, and the victims are exclusively independent young women. Eventually (SPOILER ALERT), we come to realize that the murders are being committed by the hotel's manager (Cameron Mitchell), who is targeting "immoral" young women as his victims.
It seems that his daughter was killed in a car crash after having gotten involved in sex and drug related activities. He is now on a crusade to rid the world of women who have gone down a similar path. In a genuinely twisted subplot, he has become obsessed with a virginal girl in one of the apartments, whom he fantasizes as replacing his daughter. He kidnaps her and keeps her tied to his bed while he goes out and hammers and nail guns his victims.
It leads up to one of the most harrowing and unsettling finales I've ever seen in this type of movie. As you can tell, the plot itself is as sordid as one could have thought up. Although it isn't nearly as vile as, say CANNIBAL FEROX or I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, TOOLBOX MURDERS is the kind of slasher movie that makes me reluctantly understand women's groups denouncing the entire subgenre. I don't agree with them, but I can see their point when I watch the movie.
While there's no question that the movie is sexist, it never crosses the line into rampant misogyny. Even the movie's now infamous highlight, in which a nude woman is chased throughout her apartment by the nail-gun wielding killer, the victim manages to keep her cool and even tries to reason with the killer (albeit unsuccessfully) despite being in a most vulnerable position.
There is enough style to make things interesting and it moves along at a decent pace, so it never gets boring. It's no Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE, but it delivers what it promises, something that too many horror movies fail to do.