I'm not much a Tobe Hooper fan. Aside from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Salem's Lot I haven't liked any of his movies (unless you want to give him credit for Poltergeist). I therefore wasn't expecting much when I picked up his remake of The Toolbox Murders.
I haven't seen the original, so I can't say how this remake compares, but on its own, this movie is a winner. A young couple moves into a rat trap old building in Hollywood. He's an intern and is gone most of the time leaving Nell Barrows with too much time on her hands. She finds out some strange things about the building's history and unbeknownst to all, somebody is murdering the tenants.
Right from the beginning when the camera is filming through a sheet of plastic in the rain, it manages to give off a downright unsettling atmosphere. A fantastic job was done lighting the creepy old building, making every shadow seem threatening. Everything feels old, grimy and unpleasant. The music is surprisingly good. There is the usual 'string swell' to make you jump, but otherwise it works well to ratchet up your nerves. The whole movie is an exercise in tension.
Really the only bad part about this movie is the whole 'toolbox murders' gimmick. The story really stands on its own and is good enough without the different tool for each murder shtick. If the killer just used a knife or something, that would have worked just as well. It felt like they needed to throw in the unusual murder weapons to keep the name.
Still, this was a pretty good movie. I'd recommend it to fans of old fashioned '70's and '80's horror movies. They don't make many like this any more.
I haven't seen the original, so I can't say how this remake compares, but on its own, this movie is a winner. A young couple moves into a rat trap old building in Hollywood. He's an intern and is gone most of the time leaving Nell Barrows with too much time on her hands. She finds out some strange things about the building's history and unbeknownst to all, somebody is murdering the tenants.
Right from the beginning when the camera is filming through a sheet of plastic in the rain, it manages to give off a downright unsettling atmosphere. A fantastic job was done lighting the creepy old building, making every shadow seem threatening. Everything feels old, grimy and unpleasant. The music is surprisingly good. There is the usual 'string swell' to make you jump, but otherwise it works well to ratchet up your nerves. The whole movie is an exercise in tension.
Really the only bad part about this movie is the whole 'toolbox murders' gimmick. The story really stands on its own and is good enough without the different tool for each murder shtick. If the killer just used a knife or something, that would have worked just as well. It felt like they needed to throw in the unusual murder weapons to keep the name.
Still, this was a pretty good movie. I'd recommend it to fans of old fashioned '70's and '80's horror movies. They don't make many like this any more.