Post by slayrrr666 on Nov 1, 2005 15:19:11 GMT -5
“The Toolbox Murders” is one of the best remakes made recently.
**SPOILERS**
The Lusman Arms apartment building is being renovated to fit in to modern times. The old building has so many things wrong with it that the list of complaints has reached a crucial point for newlyweds Nell (Angela Bettis) and Steven Barrows, (Brent Roam) who are trying to move into the building during a raging thunderstorm. As they try to settle in, they meet the eclectic residents: Byron McLieb (Greg Travis) the, Ned (Adam Gierasch) the local handyman, Luis Saucedo, (Marco Rodriquez) the doorman, and Chas Rooker, (Rance Howard) the oldest living tenant in the building. Also residents of the building are several wanna-be actors, Julia Cunningham, (Juliet Landau) Saffron Kirby, (Sara Downing) and () who is easily the most convincing of the three. After several days have gone by and the weirdness of the building settling in on Nell, and one-by-one, the other tenants start disappearing. Nell takes it upon herself to solve the disappearances, and finds a masked killer wandering around killing the tenants with different tools.
The Good News: Wow, was I impressed with this one. I never really got into the original for two reasons: I thought it was the same movie as The Driller Killer, and it wasn’t as gory as its “Video Nastie” title seemed to warrant. It was a nice slasher film for it’s time, but I thought it could’ve been so much more. This one is a lot better and much creepier. The attacks by the killer are actually pretty scary. The elevator attack is my favorite. A guy enters the elevator to leave the building, then it stops, then stops, then starts up again. Getting frustrated, he slams against the control panel, then a gloved hand comes down from the ceiling and pulls up out of the elevator. Moments later, when Nell enters the elevator, we hear the vicious sound of his demise. That is mostly typical of this movie: we hear things more than we see, and that sets up the power of suggestion. That is so rare in today’s horror movies that it is very welcome to me. Granted, some murders are seen on-screen, but most are implied, with us seeing the aftermath. One of the best scenes to illustrate this is the spectacular opening. A woman goes into her apartment wanting to take in the night, and she notices her front door is open. Going to check it out, a man in black leaps out of the darkness and attacks her with a hammer, and after a small skirmish, she is killed by the maniac. It seems short, but the buildup is so brilliantly executed that the suspense is wrung out of the scene like no other director can. This is probably Hooper’s best film since “Poltergeist,” but this is much more violent. The killings are pretty impressive. We get a power drill through the mouth, a hammer claw used as a slashing weapon, a pair of hedge clippers to chop up the back, being shot up with a nail gun, and being carved up with a chisel, among the other killings. It’s great that he practically used everything in a toolbox as murder weapons. Some are so creative that I don’t want to spoil them here, just seeing them in film will come as a complete surprise. Without a doubt, the last twenty minutes are so action-packed and thrilling that you don’t want to look away. Once the secret of the building is revealed and Nell has to escape repeated confrontations with the killer, who also begins stalking the ones who’s after Nell because she knows the secret about the killer, it becomes a giant free-for-all of shocks and gore that are so exciting to watch Hooper has to be commended for keeping it all linear and focused.
The Bad News: Aside from a pretty slow beginning that was mainly used as a way to exposition needed for the characters, this was a great slasher film.
The Final Verdict: The comeback of the year! Hooper has made a film that should rival David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” as a brilliant remake that surpasses the original. It has it all: cool deaths, a creepy surrounding, an all-star cast, lots of suspense and plenty of gore. All horror movie fans, not just slasher fans, should check this one out.
Rated R: Graphic Violence and some Language
