re:mote voices

Title: Toolbox Murders

Cast: Angela Bettis, Juliet Landau, Brent Roam, Chris Doyle, Rance Howard

Director: Tobe Hooper

A couple move into an aging apartment block at a chaotic moment. Rent maybe cheap, but the current renovations are making something of a mess. Steven is a young doctor and is at the hospital all the time. leaving Nell, an out of work teacher, sitting around at home a lot. With this Nell becomes suspicious, strange sounds and disappearances lead her to think that people are being murdered. Of course, each time she expresses her concerns she is dismissed and ridiculed. But then, there is the mysterious old man and his cryptic statements, the esoteric symbols and the buildings history.

Toolbox Murders is a remake of a 1978 slasher movie – brought up to date, in a meld that feels like retro-contemporary. This version by Tobe Hooper who did the original version of The Chainsaw Massacre as well as Poltergeist. Toolbox Murders is very much in the Chainsaw Massacre mould, with the inhabitants of the apartments being picked off one-by-one tool-by-tool.

Despite the contemporary nature – there is use of a webcam – the film has a fairly basic, low budget feel, which in some ways makes it really feel like a film from the late 70’s or early 80’s. With many films there are suggestions of who the killer is, and Toolbox Murders is no different, although for me it would have helped if the main suspect had been the same height as the man in the mask! Through the film there is a certain level of humour, although as the film goes on there is a definite amount of absurdity, common to these kinds of horror films.