‘The Toolbox Murders’ (1978)

A lot of horror fans seem to hate this movie because 2/3 of it basically consists of the killer (Cameron Mitchell) terrorizing Pamelyn Ferdin in his apartment. Pretty much all of the slashing is up front in the first act and it sort of becomes a police procedural from thereon out. I don't mind this either and think it is a pretty good horror movie. The locations in it reek of seedy '70s LA in a way that few other horror films managed to captured it. It is sleazy with a capital S.

The Tobe Hooper remake is completely different and takes a supernatural route that doesn't really work. Its main strength is Angela Bettis as the lead—she is a good actress. Overall though, the movie is quite absurd.

It was shot in seedy LA and not a set or glamorous area. I like when movies and shows from the past actually shot on location vs a set or only the nice parts. This captured seedy LA the way Taxi Driver captured seedy NYC beautifully.

Who else starred in this opus? Dame Peggy Ashcroft and Laurence Olivier?

Op is a serial killer

OP is Pamelyn Ferdin.

Yeah, it's super skeezy in a good way. Cameron Mitchell's cheap suit virtually reeks of body odor and stale cigarette smoke through your TV set.

Let's not forget about handsome Wesley Eure as the male lead.

"Charlotte's Web" was one of my mom's favorite childhood books/films, so I grew up watching that movie. As I came of age, I ended up becoming a horror nerd who spent weekends renting videos and DVDs of random obscure horror films. I remember watching this one for the first time and being shocked by what they put poor little Fern Arable through.

R7 how would you even know that was her pre-internet?

Some voices are familiar but her voice doesn’t even sound the same.

Wesley Eure was a soap actor. He’s from the south with a strong southern accent. He had to get a teacher to help him lose some of the accent. He never fully lost it, it just lightened. He was on Days of our Lives for years and on the show Land of the Lost too.

r2 same with Private Parts

R10 yes. You can see what NYC or LA were REALLY like in the 70s and 80s in numerous films, especially NY. Taxi Driver, Cruising, The Warriors, The French Connection, Basket Case, Mean Streets, Dog Day Afternoon, hell even Saturday Night Fever and Shaft. NYC itself is pretty much a character in those films.

PRIVATE PARTS (not the Howard Stern version) is a great look at seedy downtown L.A. in the 1970s, including the halls and rooms of the decrepitly grand King Edward Hotel.

R12 agreed. Model Shop (1969) is another film where LA is pretty much a character in the film. But not seedy as it wasn’t really seedy yet in 1969, but being built up still. A lot of dirt and empty space in LA still at the time. It’s a fascinating backdrop

[quote]how would you even know that was her pre-internet?

Young Pamelyn kept her most devoted fans very well-informed about all her creative endeavors.

R8 this wasn’t pre-internet—this was in the early 2000s. And I did recognize her voice. She made The Toolbox Murders only a few years after Charlotte’s Web was released.

R13 Model Shop is great. Another more obscure one in a similar vein is Hollywood 90028 from 1973. It just got a Blu-ray release with an 4K restoration after being essentially a lost film for decades. A very seedy, depressing proto-Taxi Driver look at a pornographer and his descent into madness (written and directed by a woman, no less).

[quote]Model Shop is great.

I dunno...

R17 I thought it was terrific.