The Toolbox Murders 1978

 

 Here we go with The Toolbox Murders, another film on the Video Nasty list.  As the  title infers what we have here is a masked killer who uses the contents of his toolbox to commit gruesome murders in an apartment building.  It starts out pretty decent with the majority of the murders being committed early on. 

 

Cameron Mitchell stars as the slightly off kilter owner of the apartment building.  Wesley Eure (from Land of the Lost) plays his not much better nephew; although he's able to hide his weirdness well for a little while.  Also starring is Pamelyn Ferdin who is better known as the voice of Lucy Van Pelt in A Boy Named Charlie Brown  and Fern in the original Charlotte's Web .  There is also one scene starring pornographic film star Kelly Nichols which I'm sure is at least partially responsible for the Video Nasty tagline.  

 As I said earlier; most of the action, well, the murders at least, take place in the first quarter or third of the film.  By the time Ferdin appears in the film it has turned into more of a psychological thriller.  It picks back up in the last quarter of the film but again it only makes for half of a good movie at best.  It has that raw, grainy, gritty feel of a slasher film done on the cheap.  Which is by no means a bad thing.  At the end we are told contents of the film were based on a true story but that claim was never confirmed.  Again I have to say I saw this on Tubi and they are blowing me away with the quality of the film prints they present.  I really wanted this to be a good one but all I can give this is two and a half bloody claw hammers out of five.