I have heard this title thrown around in slasher film conversations for a while now. I decided to buy the bluray on a whim and it paid off. This movie is much more than a slasher though. It is a chilling portrayal of madness. Dennis Donnelly, who has largely worked on action television programs, shows his diverse talent with fine directing here. Cameron Mitchell and Pamelyn Ferdin steal the show though, in one of my favorite horror movie scenes ever[!], and it’s completely bloodless.

The plot is sweet and simple. A maniac in a ski mask is killing "sinful" women in an apartment complex with the contents in his toolbox. The "toolbox killings" and one kidnapping all occur in the first 30 minutes of the film. Then we slowly get to know the characters and the effects the crimes had on their lives. At the 50 minute mark comes the pivotal scene I’d mentioned earlier. For me the whole movie revolves around this one phenomenal scene. The maniac has been revealed, but that is only the beginning!

Let’s break it down now. Our maniac kills 4 women in the apartment complex. The first woman is a drunkard who is killed with a drill and the second one gets bludgeoned to death with the claw end of a hammer. The third woman was not an intended target. She walks into one of the apartments as the killer is fumbling with the toolbox and gets a screwdriver in the stomach. The fourth woman gets caught masturbating in the bathtub and is chased around her home by the killer, ultimately put down with two blasts from a nail gun. I personally found the music being played during these murders to be god-damned awful! It’s some kind of smooth country crap that severely ruined the mood for me. When you group all the important killings in the first act like that you run the chance of alienating your audience from the people being killed, simply because we don’t really know any of them yet. The killer is awfully slow and keeps "mumble-humming" a tune as he walks around. At first it kinda pissed me off because he came across as a giant retard that mumbles and can’t quite hum correctly. First impressions can be deceiving and as I soon discovered, the man behind the mask is scarier when he takes it off.

Laurie Ballard, played by Pamelyn Ferdin, is an innocent teenage girl. She gets abducted from her apartment for seemingly unknown reasons. All the other women were found brutally killed. What’s so different about Laurie? Her brother Joey becomes friends with Kent, who’s being paid by his uncle to clean up the bloody apartments. Kent’s uncle happens to be the owner of the housing complex. The two young men decide to act as detectives and try to solve the murders since the police can’t seem to do their job right. They have access to the crime scenes and that’s a hell of a good start. I guessed who the killer was, the first time I saw him. You may be able to do the same, but I guarantee the rest of the story will surprise you.

I really don’t want to give away such a juicy secret. The killer is revealed halfway through the movie so subtly that it’s beautiful. There are no fireworks or flashing lights. It just happens from one moment to the next, and it leads us right into that pivotal scene where the movie really started working for me. There is the killer, unmasked, entering the room where he has young Laurie, gagged and tied to the bed. They have an intimate conversation. Although he does all of the talking, Laurie’s eyes speak volumes!

I highly recommend you watch this exploitation classic. I myself am going to sit down and watch it again with commentary. The Toolbox Murders may be the title but it’s all about the kidnapping for me!

- Jorge Antonio Lopez