The Toolbox Murders (1978) ***

The Toolbox Murders (1978) is a weird little flick—the first third is pure plotless exploitation sleaze, the middle third is melodramatic expositional TV Movie of the Week stuff, and the final third goes for a psychological thriller angle. TBM was briefly on the video nasty list but never really deserved to be.

The acting is uneven (though veteran actor Cameron Mitchell and Wesley Eure—of Land Of The Lost (1974-1977) fame—are solid and suitable creepy), Dennis Donelley's (in his sole feature film credit) direction is largely unremarkable, and it’s by no means a masterpiece, but despite the clunkiness—there’s something about TBM that keeps me coming back. Maybe it’s the ample violence and nudity in that first third, the haunting and moody main theme song, that great theatrical poster, and a genuinely disturbing ending.