Toolbox Murders (2004)

Pretty Good

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

A remake that is actually better than the original. Well that is probably a first (well that I can think of anyway).Directed by Tobe Hopper his best movie in years since his hey days (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive & Funhouse). For a start I wouldn't really call this a remake, as it's in name only, the story is almost completely different and as a movie in its own right I'd say that this is a pretty decent movie. The Plot = A young teacher Nell moves into an old apartment complex with her husband Steven, a building with a mysterious past. After Nell's friend disappears and several tenants start getting murdered, Nell decides to investigate the building's sordid past and who's behind these murders.The tone of this movie takes a completely different turn to the original, not that it's a bad thing, in fact it features some pretty decent performances (something the original lacked), especially Angela Bettis who plays the young teacher, turns in a solid and well rounded performance I also enjoyed her in one of her earlier horror movies "May", a radically different role to this one, as she's more straight forward in this one. As for this film, Tobe Hooper proves that he's still got that magic touch, with its generally creepy atmosphere, solid set pieces and fast paced, which is always a bonus. Okay this movie is the general standard Slasher movie fare. But it keeps you hooked from beginning to end with some decent kills and has that old school feel to it.Okay there are some low points, like none of the other cast are fleshed out, they're just cardboard cut outs, apart from Angela Bettis, none of them are remotely memorable, but that often happens in these types of movies. And some of the plot scenes doesn't really go anywhere, like the mysterious symbols and curses that are found, but this part of the story falls flat and certain things aren't explained very well leaving massive plot holes, like towards the end seems rushed and left a lot of questions unanswered.All in all "Toolbox Murders" definitely improves on the original version, Tobe Hooper shows us that he's still got what it takes, but this doesn't quite reach the heights of some of the classic and won't be as well remembered in years to come, but it's a pretty decent movie, with some effective deaths and a creepy killer.

At an apartment complex in Hollywood, a couple named Nell (Angela Bettis) and her husband Steven (Brent Roam) move in as they meet some friendly and not-too-friendly neighbors. It was once a place for the stars to live along time ago until weird stuff began happening with mysterious disappearances years ago. A homicidal maniac uses weapons of any kind from drill to hammer begins killing off some of the residents one by bloody one and secrets from the past are coming back.Co-starring Sherri Moon Zombie, Juliet Landau, Christopher Doyle and Adam Weisman, this is a nifty reimagining of the low budget "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" wannabe known as "The Toolbox Murders" but this one is directed by horror maestro Tobe Hooper. Hooper really admired the original as the best rip-off of his masterpiece he'd ever seen and decided to update it for a new generation. I gotta say how pleasantly surprised i was at this new version from an artist as he improved on the material very nicely. Much like the original it has it's use of buzz-saws, drills, hammering and gore galore but very done well! the acting is quite decent and the story has much improved.It's an old-school style remake that i highly recommend.

Although I write in this commentary solely about the building in which the horrible crimes are happening, notice that this is already a spoiler - if not THE spoiler of the whole movie. This is why I "flagged" this text.It is not by change that the candidates for "haunted houses" are exclusively old buildings. "This house is history, and you are a part of it", the maintenance supervisor says in Tobe Hooper's "Toolbox Murders" (2003). Practically only old houses possess these creaky beams, that stale odor that comes out of the walls, the characteristic noise when the wind presses against the windows, the howling of an old elevator, etc. But that is not all. Before the unfortunate functionalism started to make Tabula Rasa with each trace of architectural generosity, houses often had strange hollow parts in the walls, little closets that lead wide into nowhere, "crawling spaces" between ceiling and next higher floor, mysterious huge and sometimes more-level attics and cellars, etc. And so it is in "Toolbox Murders": "There is a whole townhouse in this building", the historian in the movie says. It turns out that from each apartment there is a little space lacking, but so that these parts are connected by a steep stairwell in the wall of the house. (Note: The building is not the Ambassador Hotel, as indicated in IMDb. The Ambassador Hotel was torn down two years before the movie was shot.)

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.