Such a frustrating disappointment

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A ski-masked maniac kills apartment complex tenants with the contents of a toolbox.Blue Underground does a great job of bringing forgotten movies to the mainstream, and making them look good in the process. You might think a "video nasty" from the 1970s would not fare well today, but they make it work with a great audio commentary and interview. We get an inside look at a slasher that really predated the slasher movement.One can see why it got the title of "video nasty". There is a sexuality to it that is not necessarily appropriate, and then the idea of killing people with power tools? This similar idea was explored more humorously with "Slumber Party Massacre", but there is little humor here.

Some reviews call this movie sleazy; to some degree it is. Some might say it lacks action in the last two acts; that's partially true as well. But this film is something different entirely. In the genre of serial killer-exploitation, female characters are routinely objectified. But "The Toolbox Murders" is a rare feminist exploitation film. It twists the genre on it's head and gives it an entirely different angle on female roles in horror.The film starts with some suitably gory murders, seemingly setting the stage for a by-the-books slasher movie. But after these first murders (SPOILERS) the killer kidnaps a young girl and keeps her in his home as his surrogate daughter (his own died in a car accident). The killer reveals that he chose his female victims because of supposed moral transgressions. These transgressions are sins of the "modern woman" (sexual freedom, freedom of choice, etc.) and he wants to keep his new "daughter" as a pure, virginal woman.The movie twists and turns, but it's mostly psychological. It plays with genre conventions, such as a woman's savior almost always being a male figure, and changes them. In the end, she is seen by her attackers as a porcelain doll to be manipulated, not a real human being. (SPOILERS) She eventually is capable of saving herself; no man is needed.The direction is fine, the acting is okay for a low-budget '70's horror movie, but the uniqueness of this film is its greatest quality. Many viewers came to this movie expecting a cookie-cutter serial killer movie, and that's not what "The Toolbox Murders" gives you.

Take a 70s primetime television director with aspirations to milk off the successes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with a gorier sleazier misogynistic exploitation piece of his own. Add b-movie legend Cameron Mitchell and Welsey Eure (Will Marshall of Saturday morning's Land of The Lost fame) and Pamelyn Ferdin with very realistically disturbing on screen murders involving hand- and powertools, a sexy steaming hot bathtub scene involving female masturbation (featuring future porn queen Kelly Nichols in her debut role under the name Marianne Walter) that leads into one of the most pleasing murder set pieces ever, and for icing one whacky twist that introduces another yet whackier twist. Yeah, it doesn't feature wall to wall gore and the 7 minute body count like later films such as Maniac and Friday The 13th and the ensuing arrival of the notorious slasher in the early 1980s and the toolbox murderer takes no more female victims after the first half hour but this vintage exploitation sleaze left a wonderful taste to my palate. I loved it. SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! Before the final credits when Pamelyn Ferdin is walking like a zombie in a blood drenched dress armed with the scissors in the early dawn across the strip mall parking lot I couldn't resist a sigh and a smile.SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!

This is by no means a classic genre movie but for a low budget independent '70's horror movie it also certainly is one fine watchable movie.Biggest problem with this movie is that there is no main character. Basically for the first third of the movie you only see different murders occur. You just keep waiting for the movie to introduce its main 'hero'. Some times character's roles become bigger in the movie and you expect the rest of the movie to be focused entirely around them but every time then the movie cuts away again and takes a whole other direction with its story and characters. So not really the most consistent movie around.It's an '70's movie, so the movie uses lots of unusual experimental editing. It's fine looking but yet it doesn't all quite work out well enough. The movie uses the proper right required horror build up for its sequences but yet when it comes down to its most important part; the scare moments, the movie falls short. The movie just never knows to become truly tense and perhaps you can even call the movie a bit boring in parts. This is also due to some of the pacing problems of the movie. The fact that we get to know who the killer is pretty early on in the movie (the hairy arms gave it away) also takes away a lot of the tension and mystery atmosphere of the movie.Even though the movie gets gory in parts, I mean the murders are being committed with the contents of a toolbox, how can it not be gory but it's just never really shocking.Still fans of this sub-genre will probably most likely still enjoy and appreciate this movie.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/