The Toolbox Murders | 1978 | USA | Dennis Donnelly
A gore-soaked proto-slasher from the 70s, Dennis Donnelly’s Toolbox Murders opens with quite an infamous barrage of violent mutilations and murders, before settling onto a drama-cum-mystery type film. A wave of slaughter runs through an apartment block, with the female residents falling prey to a maniac in a ski-mask who uses assorted tools in his vicious quest. When chirpy Laurie is then kidnapped in the midst of the carnage, it becomes clear that it’s not just your average homicidal maniac at work. While erroneously based on true events, it was in fact the multiple scenes of bloodletting involving power tools that irked the DPP, especially in the wake of Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer.