TOOLBOX MURDERS
Year: 2003
UK: Anchor Bay Entertainment UK
Cast: Angela Bettis, Juliet Landau, Brent Roam, Chris Doyle, Rance Howard, Carlease Burke, Stone Price Carson, Sara Downing, Adam Gierasch, Eric Ladin, Bob McMinn, Sheri Moon, Charlie Paulson, Alan Polonsky, Jamison Reeves, Marco Rodriguez, Stephanie Silverman, Greg Travis, Christina Venuti, Adam Weisman
Director: Tobe Hooper
Country: USA
UK: 95 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong violence and language
UK Release Date: 12 November 2004
Synopsis
Almost 30 years after shocking the world with THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, legendary director Tobe Hooper (POLTERGEIST; SALEM'S LOT) has finally made a welcome return to his roots and to terrifying form with TOOLBOX MURDERS.
An inventive reworking of Dennis Donnelly's notorious exploitative slasher from 1978, Hooper's film stars up-and-coming actress Angela Bettis (star of the cult hit film MAY and the TV remake of CARRIE) and genre favourite Juliet Landau (ED WOOD; PUMP UP THE VOLUME; Drusilla in TV's BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ANGEL) in a creepy tale of terror with a supernatural twist.
Nell (Angela Bettis) and her doctor husband Steven (Brent Roam) take an apartment in the historic but rather dilapidated Hollywood hotel, the Lusman Arms. With Steven on call and busy working shifts much of the time, Nell is left alone and begins to suffer from anxiety when she hears strange noises in the night. Her fears worsen when several residents of the hotel mysteriously disappear. Unknown to Nell, a maniacal killer is on the loose in the building and is murdering the residents using a variety of contractor's tools as his weapons of choice. As Nell's inexplicable fear of the building grows, so does the body count. Before long, Nell becomes the next target on the killer's hit list and a deadly chase commences throughout the haunted corridors of the Lusman. But when Nell stumbles upon the killer's hidden lair, she soon realises all is not as it seems...
A throwback to the spirit of the classic 'stalk-and-slash' movies of the late 70s and early 80s, Tobe Hooper's TOOLBOX MURDERS ups the ante, piling on the gore and pushing all the right scare buttons to produce one of the most crowd-pleasing frighteners in recent years.
Starring alongside Bettis and Landau is a strong supporting cast that includes Brent Roam (DEEP BLUE SEA), Rance Howard (father of Ron and Clint Howard and star of THE ALAMO and ED WOOD), Sara Downing (THE FORSAKEN; TV's ROSWELL), Sheri Moon (HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES) and Charlie Paulson (former guitarist with acclaimed ska-punks Goldfinger).
