Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Tero Luukkonen Movie starts with a very promising rate of about one murder per five minutes. As the title says contents of a toolbox is used for the work and outcome is almost a spoof. Reactions of victims are somewhat wooden. In one scene a drill is used to make a hole to a door much same way as in "Shining" (where an axe is used). "Shining" was released couple years later. Ski mask of the murderer creates interesting face expressions for otherwise silent character in the opening sequence.However after this rather dynamic start the movie loses much of its "attraction". Acting is thoroughly bland. No actor stands out. Wesley Eure (known for "Days of Our Lives") is maybe the best that this movie has to offer. Towards end the movie goes more and more uninteresting. There is an explanation to the motives of murderer - quite pointless in this kind of movie.Music creates interesting contrasts especially in the opening sequence.Not the best of its genre but I would say worth seeing if you like weird horror. 5/10.

shoddyworksucks 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.

TodayIsTheDayOurSinsWillBeOver Having stated in other reviews I've done that I'm a big fan of slashers and a collector of horror movies, it was pretty obvious, The Toolbox Murders was on my to-review list. I finally got around to watching this movie earlier this year. It had been on my list to watch for a while, but I just didn't get around to it due to whatever reasons, and one of them was, most movies with over blown hype don't live up to expectations. The others were I was just too busy with watching other horror movies I hadn't got watching, but here I am finally after watching it. Whilst The Toolbox Murders certainly didn't live up to its UK "video nasty" status, it was none the less an enjoyable slasher for those who can give it the patience and time it requires. The story unfolds with a series of grisly but relatively not so graphic murders around an apartment block committed by a rather large man in a ski mask. This takes up the first portion of the movie which is around 25 minutes to 30 minutes. The music in the film, is pretty awesome, and that alone has earned it a few extra stars it might not have got had it not of been for the music featured in the movie. I absolutely love the first song played to the first murder scene in the film - it is awesome. Anyway, pretty much after the series of grisly murders which takes place, the movie is slowed down to a crawl in a detective based story to find out what, why and who is doing all these murders. The storyline is not, at best, that great and the movie certainly takes its toll on pace and editing - the latter I believe they didn't do too much of. The acting isn't too bad, but neither is it too good, it's just more or less standard here. As the movie progresses it becomes apparent who the serial killer is, and we get to find out some interesting dialog in the 'bedroom scene' about why he has killed all the people he did, and he tries to justify what he did. The scene itself is interesting to watch, and is probably the best bit of dialog in the whole movie. There's somewhat of a happy ending too.The Toolbox Murders is just one of these movies where if one little thing had of been left out, it wouldn't have been really worth the watch. In this case, it most certainly goes to the music during the first 40 minutes of the movie, which seems to make the film feel more smoothly. It'll definitely take dedicated fans of the slasher/"video nasty" genre to appreciate it, and to give time to allow the movie to slowly pace along after the first 20 minutes or so. If you can bare with it, and appreciate it, The Toolbox Murders will leave you somewhat entertained. Don't believe all the hype though about how violent or shocking it is, by today's standards the movie is not that explicitly violent. It seems rather tame.I can't say I didn't enjoy it or I did enjoy it - it falls somewhere in between and I'll probably give The Toolbox Murders a few more viewings before leaving it in the DVD rack for a while. If it had not of featured the music it does have, it'd probably get a 5 from me, but because the music tremendously makes this movie, I've given it a low-end 7.There's two DVD releases that I know of, and they're the Blue Underground release in the US, and a VIPCO DVD release in the UK. The Blue Underground release has a lot of extra features, is remastered, and is uncut. The VIPCO 2000 UK DVD release is a bare-bones-less-then-average DVD quality release, and is cut by over 1 minute which removes the scene of the girl getting shot in the back and head with the nail gun, and the entire scene where she's in the bedroom pleading with the killer. So I think it's obvious which DVD release to go for. Though, by today's standards, the movie should pass for an '18' in the UK uncut with ease.As I said, it requires patience and understanding to enjoy the movie.

MovieGuy01 I watched the horror film, The Toolbox Murders the other night and i found it to be not to bad a film. It is about a man lunatic runs around an apartment complex, While he is there, the lunatic tries to kill all the tenants with the contents of a toolbox that he has with him. all of the people that he seems to pick on are women which he violently attacks. This film looked like it was done on a small budget, It was originally one of the 'Video Nasties' that was banned in 1982. I found this to be quite a good horror film by the end. I thought the film was quite disturbing at times, all thought it looks very dated by today's horror films 4/10