The Toolbox Murders: Difference between revisions

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[[File:ToolboxMurders_4042.jpg|frame|Beware [[The Blank]].]]

 

{{quote|''Bit by bit... by bit, he carved a nightmare!''|1978 Tagline}}

Midway through his rampage, Vance becomes enamored with fifteen year-old Laurie Ballard, a reserved and studious girl who lives in an apartment with her mother Joanne, and older brother Joey. Soon enough, Vance abducts Laurie, and holds her captive in his daughter's old bedroom, which resembles a little girl's. As Vance grows increasingly psychotic, and comes to believe Laurie really is his dead daughter, Joey begins to search for his sister, after the police prove unreliable in both their investigation of the murders, and Laurie's disappearance. Helping Joey out is Vance's somewhat odd nephew, Kent, who has been hired by his uncle to help with all the repairs and clean up needed around the apartments in the aftermath of Vance's nightly forays.

 

 

As a point of trivia, [[Stephen King]] has mentioned the original is one of his favorite horror films.

 

=== The original film provides examples of the following tropes: ===

* [[Afraid of Blood]]: Vance claims to be when he first introduces himself to Detective Jamison.

* [[Alliterative Name]]: Kent and Kathy Kingsley, and Dee Ann DeVore.

* [[Bury Your Gays]]: If Deborah actually was a lesbian.

* [[Cat Scare]]: Some dark clothing hanging in the shower, behind a translucent curtain, plus an actual cat yowling and hopping out as Joey and Kent stop by Vance's garage.

* [[Chase Scene]]: Vance going after the naked Dee Ann in her apartment.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Kent stabs Vance with the knife he had earlier used to make a sandwich, while Laurie kills Kent with the pair of scissors he used to cut her bonds.

* [[Deadly Distant Finale]]: The epilogue mentions Joanne died in a car accident in 1974.

* [[Dead Person Impersonation]]: Laurie tries to manipulate Vance by pretending to be Kathy, but it doesn't really do any good.

* [[Dramatic Pause]]: Used in the tagline, for some reason.

* [[Drop the Hammer]]: Deborah's death.

* [[Porn Stash]]: Deborah has a large number of pornographic magazines... which appear to only feature naked women.

* [[Psychopathic Manchild]]: Vance.

* [[Reaction Shot]]

* [[Really Gets Around]]: Dee Ann, it's implied.

* [[The Sixties]]: While the film was made in [[The Seventies]], the epilogue reveals it actually took place in 1967.

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: Used for the first four deaths.

* [[This Is a Drill]]: Mrs. Andrews's death.

* [[Token Minority]]: Maria, and the elderly black couple who discover the bodies of the first three victims.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: While generic radio music plays over most of the murders, a creepy suspenseful score is used for several completely mundane scenes.

* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: Seemingly promiscuous women are violently murdered with extremely phallic makeshift weaponry. In order, they're drilled, hammered, screwed and nailed.

* [[What the Hell Is That Accent?]]: Kent.

* [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]: It shows what happened to Laurie and Joanne.

 

=== The remake provides examples of the following tropes: ===

* [[Abandoned Area]]: Segments of the building.

* [[Alien Geometries]]: Possibly. According to Johnny, the building's design (at least the in regards to the secret portion of it) is somewhat impossible, or just really [[Mind Screw|Mind Screwy]].

* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Nell, due to several 911 calls that turned out to be nothing early on.

* [[Cat Scare]]: Innumerable.

* [[The Cavalry]]: After discovering Coffin Baby is not dead, Officers Stone and Clark track him down and burst into Nell's apartment [[Just in Time]] to shoot him out the window.

* [[Chase Scene]]: The last third or so is just one long one.

* [[Cut Phone Lines]]: Coffin Baby possibly unintentionally severs them while attacking Ned.

* [[Dangerous Windows]]: Coffin Baby somehow comes crashing through a multi-story one.

* [[Developing Doomed Characters]]

* [[Dramatic Thunder]]: At the very beginning.

* [[Drop the Hammer]]: Daisy's death.

* [[Dutch Angle]]

* [[Eyes Open]]: Despite being pumped full of nails, Saffron turns out to be somehow still alive... for a little while, at least.

* [[Facial Horror]]: Luis getting his face melted off with lye.

* [[Fetus Terrible]]: Coffin Baby's origin.

* [[Final Girl]]: Nell.

* [[Girlish Pigtails]]: Julia sports them twice.

* [[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot]]: Oddly averted. Austin is [[Squick|squicked]] when Nell asks to see his secret recordings of Julia.

* [[Girls Love Stuffed Animals]]: Julia has a little seal.

* [[Gorn]]

* [[Hooks and Crooks]]: Throughout Coffin Baby's lair.

* [[Horror Hunger]]: Coffin Baby possibly needs blood to survive.

* [[Implacable Man]]: Coffin Baby.

* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: Unlike in the original, Coffin Baby doesn't have the excuse of using that nail gun at close range.

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]

* [[Improvised Weapon]]: Daisy tries to fight Coffin Baby off with a pair of scissors, but he easily knocks them from her grasp.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: Saffron's [[Bastard Boyfriend]] Hans survives.

* [[Large Ham]]: Johnny.

* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]

* [[Off-the-Shelf FX]]: Most of the tools belonged to Tobe Hooper.

* [[Only a Flesh Wound]]: Steve getting stabbed with a chisel.

* [[Punny Name]]: It ''might'' just be a coincidence that Ned Lundy sounds like [[Serial Killer|Ted Bundy]].

* [[Reaction Shot]]

* [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot]]: Byron, when some of Coffin Baby's old victims are found.

* [[We Were Rehearsing a Play]]: They actually were.

* [[Wrench Whack]]: Attempted by Coffin Baby, but he's warded off by the runes Nell had drawn on her arms, to remember what they looked like.

* [[You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!]]: Said by Hudson, when the elevator goes crazy with him inside.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Horror Films]]

[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]

[[Category:Films of the 1970s]]

[[Category:Film]]