Home Video
Blu-ray Review: Blue Underground’s ‘The Toolbox Murders’
Now on Blu-ray everywhere is Blue Underground’s The Toolbox Murders, a hi-def release of the classic 1978 film from director Dennis Donnelly. In a quiet apartment complex in Los Angeles, a deranged handyman goes on a killing spree, savagely murdering ‘immoral’ women with the tools of his trade – claw-hammers, screwdrivers, power drills and even a deadly nail gun! But these gruesome massacres are just the beginning of this landmark epic of violence and depravity that was vilified by critics, banned by censors, and treasured by splatter fans worldwide. This is… THE TOOLBOX MURDERS!
The Film
In the 1980’s, the UK government introduced the Video Recording Act which imposed a strict code of censorship on films that were criticized for its violent content. It backfired soon after popular culture embraced these “indecencies” which made the dreaded Video Nasties list. 1978’s The Toolbox Murders was one of them. Aside from the brutal nail gun sequence, the film is relatively tame compared to the string of “torture porn” flicks that’s bombarded the market these past few years.
This post-Texas Chainsaw Massacre flick is a fairly routine slasher for the first act. It’s essentially a string of violent set pieces with zero plot or any attempt at anything resembling character development. Of course, exploitation fans will find some twisted enjoyment out of watching the ski-masked antagonist knocking off an apartment complex filled seemingly with only “impure” women. The nail gun at crotch level shot is classic slasher raunchiness. There really isn’t a central protagonist which makes the aimlessly dull second act a real chore to sit through.
Once the third act kicks in and the antagonist and his motivations are revealed, the film is somehow redeemed. It quickly descends into a dark and complex character study that somehow justifies its seedy beginnings. Everything gets exceedingly more bizarre and interesting from that point, right up to the haunting climatic shot.
The Toolbox Murders will never be mistaken as the pinnacle of genre filmmaking but its wildly unpredictable and insane final half places it a notch above the crowd. Yes, it’s fairly campy and over-the-top but it’s interesting nonetheless. The film is unapologetically sleazy, injected with a layer of psychological depth, a feat rarely seen if ever in exploitation cinema.
6 out of 10
Video
The Toolbox Murders is presented in a pretty impressive MPEG-4 AVC 1080P, 1.66:1-framed transfer. While there are some minor specks and dirt here and there, the print has been fairly cleaned up. Colors are fairly rich and the black levels are surprisingly deep. While inconsistent, there is some nice detail present. There are moments when the picture can be a tad soft but it’s most likely do to the source material. Grain is present throughout but never as distracting. If anything, it preserves the film look which is a definite plus. Blue Underground’s restoration efforts must be commended considering this little exploitation flick has never looked remotely good on home video till now.
7 out of 10
Audio
The film comes with three audio options; DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and Mono but you’d be hard pressed to find much of a difference. The tracks are clean but with the 7.1 and 5.1 mixes, the sound is regulated to the front channels with barely any separation. You’d have to go right up to the rear speakers to hear anything substantial. Thankfully, Blue Underground stays true to source, devoid of the urge to make it more “attractive” to modern film lovers like unnecessary newly recorded sound effects (Yah, I’m looking at you, “The Terminator”).
6 out of 10
Supplements
The features here are ports from the 2002 DVD minus the poster, still gallery and the Cameron Mitchell bio. There is a commentary with producer, Tony DiDio, Director of Photography, Gary Graver and co-star Pamelyn Ferdin. The track has some interesting info on the film’s creation but they spend far too much time reminiscing about other projects and Cameron Mitchell. This is the kind of commentary you listen to once and completely forget afterwards. The best feature on the disc is the “I Got Nailed in The Toolbox Murders: Interview with Star Marianne Walter” featurette (480p, 8:06). Marianne Walter has some amusing anecdotes about the making of her memorable scene, as well as, a solid retrospect of her career. The remaining features are two Radio Spots (1080p, 0:31 & 0:30), a theatrical trailer (480p, 2:19) and a TV spot (480p, 0:32). They’re vintage grindhouse.
4 out of 10
Final Thoughts
The Toolbox Murders is a minor entry in the slasher genre. It’s uneven but with more than enough fascinating attributes scattered throughout to make it stand out. It’s definitely worth a view for the slasher fan base. If you own the previous DVD edition, the HD upgrade is the only new addition. Thankfully, it’s a good one. So if you’d categorize yourself as a hardcore fan of this film, it’s worth the upgrade. More than likely, it’ll be the best A/V treatment it’ll ever get.
6 out of 10
Night School, director Ken Hughes and writer Ruth Avergon‘s tale of a headhunting slasher on the streets of Boston, arrived in the early Golden Age of the slasher film and never quite broke through the endurance test that other films in the subgenre, like Friday the 13th, managed to pass with flying colors. Blame it on a more cerebral tone, a crowded market, whatever you like, but saying it’s a shame that the film didn’t break through doesn’t begin to cover it.
Night School isn’t just an underrated slasher, or an underseen one. For my money, it’s one of the best films the subgenre has ever produced, full stop, and Vinegar Syndrome’s new 4K UHD restoration, arriving just in time for the film’s 45th anniversary, is must-have proof. Stacked with special features highlighting the craft of the film and its place in slasher history, and headlined by a gorgeous restoration showcasing the wonderfully textured production, this is Night School as it’s meant to be seen for slasher devotees everywhere.
So, what makes the film so effective? It starts very simply, with the revelation that a killer with a very cool knife and a motorcycle helmet as a mask is murdering young women in Boston, taking off their heads, and dropping those heads in the nearest body of water (no matter how small).
Solving the case falls on Judd Austin (Leonard Mann), a detective with an academic background who traces all of the victims in one way or another back to a local night school. There, suspicion falls on a womanizing professor (Drew Snyder) who sleeps around on his research assistant and romantic partner, Eleanor (Rachel Ward), whose own death could be right around the corner.
I’m doing my best to stay as spoiler-free as possible here, not just because I think plenty of slasher fans still need to see Night School, but because the film is quite determined to be a whodunit in the classic Italian giallo sense. The kills are brutal and elaborate, the killer deliberately covered head-to-toe in leather and a gleaming black helmet, the knife and the headhunting a disturbing signature. Avergon’s script is well-versed in the trappings of exactly this kind of story, complete with red herrings galore. And yet, by the time it’s all wrapping up, there’s also the sense that the answer was right there in front of you the entire time, something the very best films by legends like Mario Bava and Dario Argento could also achieve.
But on to the restoration: Like the best of the gialli, Night School is also a beautifully engineered film full of colors and delicate camera compositions and sound design. The opening kill, which takes place on a playground carousel outside of a daycare, is rich in exactly this kind of thing, from the cityscapes that lead into the scene to the sound of a motorcycle slowly rolling forward, its engine already dead. Cinematographer Mark Irwin, best known for his many collaborations with David Cronenberg, paints the film in rich reds, absinthe greens, and haunting, chilled blue-white light on wet Boston streets, all of which are preserved beautifully by the restoration team at work on this one.
It’s a movie that very deliberately evokes a specific place – the aging streets of Boston in the 1980s, and the halls of relatively low-level academia – and then takes that place into haunted territory, saturating every frame with color and shadow that suggests a killer lurking just out of view.
Night School is not a massively gore-heavy film, but it does deliver the slasher goods with a series of tense, often unpredictable kills and body discoveries that range from the darkly comic to the flat-out jaw-dropping. That’s thanks to the sound design, the score, the editing from Robert Reitano, and more, all of which add to the film’s giallo soul.
In every case, the scene’s geography is outstanding, and it’s easy to see where the simplest possible kill shot might land, but the film never goes for the obvious. Throw in a surprisingly (for 1981, anyway) feminist bent to the storytelling and some very progressive moments for an early slasher film, and this one fits right in with Black Christmas and The Slumber Party Massacre as a film with depth you can just keep unpacking.
That depth, helped along by a load of featurettes and two new commentary tracks featuring members of the crew, is what stands out the most in this new 4K set. Night School may be a niche film recognized mostly by horror addicts and the slasher faithful, but it deserves to be something more, a landmark on the roadmap of slasher cinema history. It’s one of the best in the genre, and this restoration highlights, underlines, and shouts that from the rooftops.
Night School is now available in 4K UHD from Vinegar Syndrome.
You must be logged in to post a comment.