American horror goes back to the 'old skool' in Toolbox Murders, a remake of an infamous 80s video nasty. It's a trashy, cheesy and occasionally funny shocker about a group of dim-witted residents being stalked through a Los Angeles apartment block by a tooled up handyman with an unusual approach to DIY. Marking a welcome return to form for director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) - whose career has been stuck on pause for a lifetime - it's a nostalgic throwback to the genre's gory glory past.
Loosely based on Dennis Donnelly's serial killer, handyman movie The Toolbox Murders (1978) was considered so depraved it was placed on the Director of Public Prosecutions' list of banned video nasties during the 80s. This retelling actually owes little to that infamous shocker other than its title and DIY murder kit.
"NOSTALGIC HORROR FANS WILL FIND IT HARD TO RESIST"
Recapturing the grimy world of early 80s horror with the grubby, washed out look of movies like Driller Killer and Maniac, Hooper kicks off the proceedings with a grisly claw hammer murder that pushes the boundaries of the film's 15 certificate, before following plucky tenant Nell (Angela Bettis) as she investigates the mounting trail of corpses. More toolbox murders follow as nail guns, screwdrivers and even a saw blade get put to claret-spilling use, while the potential list of suspects mounts up faster than an Agatha Christie movie.
Ultimately, though, Hooper's not interested in serial killer conventions and ditches tales of ordinary madness in favour of a supernatural yarn that takes in the sins of old Hollywood (Tobe getting his own back on the industry that burnt him, perhaps?), a physics-defying apartment building and a killer who'd give pizza-faced Freddy Krueger a run for his money. It's definitely not a driller thriller, but nostalgic horror fans will find it hard to resist a movie that has spinal cords being snipped by bolt cutters. Ouch.
Toolbox Murders (2004)
