Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Paul Magne Haakonsen I will start with saying that I am usually quite anti-remake, but this 2004 version of "The Toolbox Murders" was adequate. Tobe Hooper managed to capture the late 1970s essence and transcribe it to a modern version.While "The Toolbox Murders" is not a horror masterpiece, then it is still entertaining enough for what it was. What worked for me was the pseudo-supernatural element of the story. As for scares and such, then the movie is a most other slasher movies.The movie was predictable, yes. But then again, so are many slasher/horror movies. The story was adequately paced, although there were actually many deaths throughout the entire movie.It was essentially the cast that saved the movie, in particular Angela Bettis.This isn't Tobe Hooper's best movie, not by a long shot."The Toolbox Murders" isn't particularly outstanding amidst the countless movies in the horror genre, and as such I am rating it a mere five out of ten stars. This is the type of movie you Watch once, then put the movie away with a very unlikely'chance of ever watching it again.

TheRedDeath30 I see reviews calling this a "Return to greatness" or other such hyperbolic praise. I couldn't disagree more. This is a mediocre, forgettable slasher film that really displays nothing impressive that would mark this as the work of a Master of Horror. In fact, the more I re-watch Hooper's catalog, the more I think that title may not belong to him, at all. TCM is my favorite horror film of all time, but reading Hansen's CHAINSAW CONFIDENTIAL intimates that much of the success belongs more to decision made by Hooper's crew than by the director himself. What else has he really made? SALEM'S LOT is a bland TV movie, indicative of its' time. There is nothing impressive about the directorial work. Most of the praise belongs to the source material written by King. Same with POLTERGEIST, which many cinephiles would argue is mostly the work of Spielberg. What's left are some minor films like EATEN ALIVE and THE FUNHOUSE, which I do enjoy, but are far from masterpieces, so while this may not be a return to greatness, perhaps it is fairly representative of the majority of the man's work.I digress far too much, though, from reviewing this movie itself. This was my second viewing, almost a decade apart. I seemed to have fonder memories than what I saw as I re-watched the movie this past week. From the opening kill, featuring Sherri Moon Zombie, we quickly see that the director really has no sense of how to create terror or suspense. It's formulaic and predictable and the only thing really going for it is a gory sense of brutality that is fun, indeed, but nothing which would set it apart from tons of other slashers.From there, we get a rapid succession of other kills, featuring creative ways to use the titular toolbox to dispatch victims, but let's face it, all of this is retread from a zillion 80s VHS boom slashers, many of which gave us nail-guns, hammers, drills and these other weapons of murder. That leaves the movie to rely on its' story to set it apart from the rest of the pack and that's mostly where it fails.In typical horror movie fashion events unwind far too quickly. All of these people have been living in this hotel forever, yet suddenly the "monster" decides to whack them all within days? There are bodies stacked everywhere in the monster's lair, but no one in this hotel noticed the pattern of death that had to be present in order to create a body count that high? Maybe I'm expecting too much from my horror movies, though.The plot mainly revolves around Angela Bettis as the new resident, discovering dark secrets in the architecture of the hotel and occult symbols which have given dark power to a disfigured monster living deep within its' bowels. Again, just an amalgamation of tropes seen in dozens of other horror movies since the dawn of cinema and not even blended in any way creatively or artistically. The story goes that Hooper lost financing partway through his filming and had cobble together a movie out of bits and pieces that he had already filmed and it shows, as the movie is full of holes and plot rushes.If you're just looking for a mindless slasher with some blood, I guess this might fit the bill, but don't expect it to be anything more than a retread of the golden age of 80s slasher films prettied up with some 21st century gloss.

Boba_Fett1138 In all fairness, the 1978 version of this movie already wasn't exactly a great or classic one by any means but at least it had as a redeeming quality that it got made in the '70's and therefor had a great typical distinctive '70's movies atmosphere. This movie its only redeeming quality is its gore even though there isn't an awful lot of it in it.This movie chooses a different approach and story than the 1978 movie and therefor this movie is more of a re-imagining than an actual remake. The only thing that has remained the same is the setting of an apartment complex and a killer who uses the content of his toolbox for his killings. This movie uses a more supernatural approach of things, while the original was a pure slasher.Since it's a re-imaging, it obviously also does some things better, compared to the original. The movie picks a main character right on from the start, so the movie is more coherent with its story and characters.But yet it's not a better movie. The movie had some real good potential with its concept but it just forgot to ever get tense. For an horror movie it's also lacking some serious scares and while the build up is good with its suggestive camera work among other things, it just never pays off in the end, since a climax is never really reached in any of its sequences. It's not that this movie is a complete bore to watch but its concept just screamed for a better execution. It's funny how Tobe Hooper has never made a decent horror movie again ever since after "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", unless you still believe that he also directed "Poltergeist". It's true that the movie gets better toward the end, when things finally start to take off but it's too little too late by then already to still fully save this movie.The movie is definitely dark but I wouldn't exactly describe it as atmospheric. You can say that the atmosphere is too dark, which ruins some of the movie its tension. It's one of the simples things you can do as an horror director; make ever sequence look really dark but this just doesn't necessarily make a movie automatically tense or scary as well.The acting is slightly below par, though definitely still better than the average typical B-horror movie entry. Angela Bettis, Rance Howard and Juliet Landau are all some semi-good and known actors.Not an horrible movie, just not really worth seeing either.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

jseger9000 I'm not much a Tobe Hooper fan. Aside from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Salem's Lot I haven't liked any of his movies (unless you want to give him credit for Poltergeist). I therefore wasn't expecting much when I picked up his remake of The Toolbox Murders.I haven't seen the original, so I can't say how this remake compares, but on its own, this movie is a winner. A young couple moves into a rat trap old building in Hollywood. He's an intern and is gone most of the time leaving Nell Barrows with too much time on her hands. She finds out some strange things about the building's history and unbeknownst to all, somebody is murdering the tenants.Right from the beginning when the camera is filming through a sheet of plastic in the rain, it manages to give off a downright unsettling atmosphere. A fantastic job was done lighting the creepy old building, making every shadow seem threatening. Everything feels old, grimy and unpleasant. The music is surprisingly good. There is the usual 'string swell' to make you jump, but otherwise it works well to ratchet up your nerves. The whole movie is an exercise in tension.Really the only bad part about this movie is the whole 'toolbox murders' gimmick. The story really stands on its own and is good enough without the different tool for each murder shtick. If the killer just used a knife or something, that would have worked just as well. It felt like they needed to throw in the unusual murder weapons to keep the name.Still, this was a pretty good movie. I'd recommend it to fans of old fashioned '70's and '80's horror movies. They don't make many like this any more.