Toolbox Murders (2003)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Movie review
From Time Out London
Why re-make Dennis Donnelly’s tawdry, misogynistic slasher movie after 25 years – even if it is tricked out with Hollywood folklore about the Black Dahlia murder, movie star decadence and black magic? True, Tobe (‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’) Hooper’s gory, over-elaborated movie may help DIY enthusiasts discover new uses for their claw-hammers and Black & Decker workmates, but horror fans will wonder why Hooper bothered to dress up the cranium-drilling and skull-slicing with redundant mumbo-jumbo about a crumbling 1930s apartment building decorated with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.‘It’s not about what can get in,’ Rance Howard tells nervous new resident Nell (Angela Bettis), ‘it’s about what’s already here.’ But Nell’s obsessive probing of the building’s notorious history turns up nothing more exotic than a standard issue ‘mutilated maniac in a ski mask’. A supporting cast of oddballs, including a janitor who looks like rock legend Neil Young on a bad day, loiter in the lobby, corridors and partially renovated rooms, waiting to be dispatched one-by-one.
Author: NF
Time Out London Issue 1786: November 10-17, 2004
Cast & crew
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Angela Bettis, Juliet Landau, Brent Roam, Christopher Doyle, Rance Howard, Sherri Moon
Genre(s): Horror
Rated: 15
Duration: 95 mins
UK Release: Nov 12 2004
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
A Bond a day: No. 11 'Moonraker'
Time Out revisits the 21 Bond movies day by day to celebrate the release of 'Quantum of Solace'
The essential guide to the London Film Festival
Get the inside track on the all the films and events you'll want to catch at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival
Terence Davies: interview
Wally Hammond talks to visionary British director Terence Davies about his deeply personal and long-awaited new documentary ‘Of Time and the City’
W.
Read our early review of Oliver Stone's George W Bush biopic, 'W.', playing at this year's London Film Festival
Ten friendly ghost movies
To celebrate the release of 'Ghost Town' in which Ricky Gervais plays a New York dentist who can see dead people, Time Out counts down ten great friendly ghost movies.







What do you think?
Post your review now