The Toolbox Murders

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Year:	1978
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Dennis Donnelly
Genre:	Slasher exploitation
Starring:	Cameron Mitchell, Pamelyn Ferdin , Nicolas Beauvy, Wesley Eure
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078405/
Tagline:	Bit by bit..By bit he carved a nightmare!
Favourite line:	"You dirty filthy fornicator."

A real curiosity here, this is the very definition of exploitation film-making.
Shot at the tail end of the seventies, I thought initially that this was clearly riding the coat-tails of the success of Halloween but a little gentle probing revealed that it was actually released some six months before Carpenter's masterpiece.
So what happens?

The first half an hour is spectacular as a ski-masked killer wanders around an apartment complex, busting into people's homes and slaughtering them with tools which he carries around with him in his toolbox, a huge, cumbersome looking thing that he holds on his shoulder as if it were a fucking ghetto-blaster, humming to himself as he walks. It is genuinely hilarious to watch.
As his hapless victims are initially assaulted they seem to make no effort to get away, instead flopping to the floor and flapping around like fish on a canal towpath meaning that, as a viewer, you are happy to see them go. If they are that fucking useless at defending their right to live, good riddance.
There's lots of gratuitous nudity as he slashes and drills as, concidentally, most of the women are either in the shower or, in one case, in the bath enjoying a spot of the old bean flicking, so is then compelled to run around the apartment randomly, stark bollock, when the maniac eventually bursts in.
The following day a young girl is kidnapped and it turns out that the killer has a heart. All he wants to do is replace his young daughter with another.
So why did he kill all those others?
And will he allow the young girl to live?
And why are his arms so fucking hairy?

It's an entertaining ride, though patchy and it does begin to drag once the initial savagery is done with.
There's a nice line in black humour, as well as the odd bit of general weirdness.
It's far from perfect but for horror completists this is essential viewing.
Yet to see the Tobe Hooper's remake but hope to rectify that soon.
A good horror film.