The Toolbox Murders (1978)

Has its moments of creepiness especially with the killer and his kidnapped teenage victim, and the opening murders were pretty brutal, but the scenes in between with characters I couldn't care less about, was a tad dry. As exploitation movies go, it's okay. **2.75/5**...

**_Effective low-budget slasher beat “Halloween” to theaters in 1978_**

At a Los Angeles apartment complex, four women are murdered by various tools and a girl is missing. Who’s the psycho doing the killing and WHY? Cameron Mitchell (Vance), Wesley Eure (Kent) and Nicholas Beauvy (Joey) head the cast.

"The Toolbox Murders” (1978) is an obscure early slasher that only cost $165,000, but it’s professionally made and doesn’t seem too low-budget. It beat the hailed “Halloween” to theaters by almost eight months and, in my opinion, is just as worthwhile if you appreciate slasher flicks.

It’s a sordid affair with a couple exploitive bits, but it explores interesting themes underneath the typical slasher plot. For instance, the opening features a minister on the radio p...

This infamous little slasher flick with the infamous little title is full of blood, violence, and nudity. It is everything you expect from something of this ilk. Supposedly based on a true story, four women in an apartment building are brutally murdered by items normally found in a toolbox. The killer (and the film makers do not hide this fact) is Cameron Mitchell, the building owner. Mitchell is a religious nut who recently lost his daughter in a car accident. He then begins punishing "sinful" women. The last third of the film sees the deaths of two major characters, and wraps things up nicely with the end credits crawl describing what happened to the "survivors" of this "real life" crime spree.

Although rated (R), this is some very violent stuff. The first half hour, when the majority...