The Toolbox Murders
1977, directed by Dennis Donnelly, released by Blue Underground

Movie
From the late 1970's comes this exploitation film directed by Dennis Donnelly, and produced by Tony DiDio. It is one of the many films from this decade that created controversy. And like others, was edited, banned, and largely not seen. Now, 25 years later, does the film live up to its reputation?

The story: The movie opens, with a Los Angeles area apartment complex as the setting. The apartments seem to have become the hunting ground for a ski-mask-wearing killer - who totes a large toolbox around. The victims are all women within the complex, but beyond that, there seems to be another connection between them - they all do "unnatural" things. While this fact is what motivates the killer to select his victims, the authorities have very little information to solve the crimes. The owner of the apartments, Ben Kingsley (Cameron Mitchell), is equally perplexed. The crime scenes they discover are brutal, but provide little in the way of clues.

However, their investigation becomes more urgent when the killer apparently alters his modus operandi - by seemingly kidnapping, as opposed to killing a young girl, Laurie Ballard (played by Pamelyn Ferdin). At this point in the film, the killer is unmasked - as well as the revelation of why he kills - and why he did not kill Laurie.

While this is occurring, we see no progress from the professional investigation. Laurie's brother Joey (Nicolas Beauvy) looks for clues on his own - and runs into Kent Kingsley (Wesley Eure). Kent is the nephew of Ben, and has been employed to clean up the victims' apartments. They team up to investigate on their own. And from here, all mysteries are resolved. There has already been a plot twist up to this point - but there is more to come, which won't be spoiled here.

Video
We have a nice 1.66:1 anamorphic transfer here. Minor amount of source defects, specks, dirt and the like. But honestly, the movie looks better than I have ever seen it - and I don't expect it to be re-visited anytime soon. For a non-mainstream, 25-year-old movie, there is little to complain about. Kudos to Blue Underground - I can't wait to check out more of their DVDs.

Audio
English Dolby Digital mono is what you get, no options. Nothing special or elaborate here. Dialogue is pretty clear.

I can see many people hating the music in this one. The instrumental score itself, by George Deaton is decent - very fitting to the movie. But there are a few country-like vocal tracks that age the film, and standout as seeming pretty silly. Similar to the work of David Hess in Last House on the Left.

Trash Factor
Another very controversial film from the 1970's - but you may be disappointed with the reality of the film, versus its reputation.

You do get some intense moments, and brutal death scenes. Very quick gore shots - you won't get to see the full effect of the "toolbox murders." Implements of death here include the screwdriver, claw hammer, drill, and the infamous nail-gun. The start of the movie is very promising as far as the body count - but that really slows down, as the film takes an entirely different tact in the middle.

Since the apartment complex setting has a high proportion of young sexy women, the start of the movie does well in the eye-candy department. The standout and "strip-down" performance of the movie goes to Marianne Walter - a nude model, who got a nice juicy part in this film, and then went on to the adult film industry (as Kelly Nichols). She is featured in the never dull "bathtub masturbation scene" - is there any surprise that she is a victim? Plenty of full frontal in this intense scene.

My favorite scene, see if you can follow this logic: Hot girl arrives at apartment, sets bags down outside, enters apartment, goes to bathroom, turns on shower, strips to white blouse and panties, puts on shower cap, shock - sees a "shape" in the shower, pulls back shower curtain to see a sweater hanging up, steps into shower to remove sweater, gets all wet, exits shower, then turns off water, takes off shower cap, goes to closet to change out of wet shirt, is topless, puts on new shirt still with just panties, goes outside apartment to get bags she left, meets killer. The sequence of events there defies logic to me - unless, perhaps, it was a "plot" to get her topless?? Hmmmmm. What am I thinking, great script! Well done!

Extras
This is one of the first DVD releases from Blue Underground, and it is a promising start. One of the best extras is a feature length commentary, by Tony DiDio (producer), Gary Graver (director of photography and one of the stars, Pamelyn Ferdin. Worth listening to, if you like commentaries.

The other standout extra is an 8-minute recollection by Marianne Walter - although, by the end of the 8 minutes, it felt like she had been talking for an hour. It is entitled "I Got Nailed in the Toolbox Murders." Nice!

Also retrieved for the DVD release is a theatrical trailer, along with TV and radio spots.

A disappointing photo / poster gallery is included. The amount of screen utilized to display these items is very small on the screen. If you have a gallery like this, you should fit the pictures to screen size.

Finally, there is a text bio section for Cameron Mitchell.

Packaging
Excellent 70's era poster art from this exploitation film - featuring a drawing with the killer and Marianne Walter. The chapter-stop insert card has the full poster reproduction that this cover art is taken from.

Overall
Bottom-line, I only give a moderate recommendation to this DVD. While I enjoyed the opening slasher-fest feel - and the twist departure which revealed the killer and his motivation (and also made him a sympathetic character) - I was not completely satisfied with the resolution of the film. I won't say more, but you can judge it for yourself, should you care to see the movie.

If you are a fan of 70's era horror and exploitation, this is a solid movie to rent, at least. You will see another fine performance by Cameron Mitchell. The other performances are not standout, however. Stars Pamelyn Ferdin and Wesley Eure are easily recognized by anyone who watched TV in the 70's. Pamelyn had guest roles in shows like "The Odd Couple" and "The Brady Bunch." Wesley Eure is known for his work in the Saturday morning TV show "Land of the Lost."

Which leads me to an overall impression of the film - aside from the opening killings, and some controversial subject matter, this film has the feel of a made for TV movie. Especially the whole mystery / investigation aspect of it, along with the sympathetic killer sequence. And these scenes make up the bulk of the movie. Also note, that the director Dennis Donnelly is mostly known as a TV director - on series like "Dallas", "Airwolf", and "Riptide," among many others.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about The Toolbox Murders is the dichotomy between the movie as promoted, and the actual film as a whole. Just watch the trailer, spots, and gallery - the marketing campaign was solely focused on drawing viewers to an exploitation film. What you will actually see in the full 90-minute movie is quite different. And may lead to some disappointment. Yet, I am glad to own the DVD and support Blue Underground. But for others, you might want to take the less risky venture of just finding this DVD to rent.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD