Toolbox Murders (2004) on Netflix
Nell and Steven Barrows move into the Lusman Arms, a historic Hollywood hotel under renovation. Supernatural evil has been subdued there for decades, but renovations stir it and murders begin.
- Netflix2.7/5
- IMDb5.3/109,654 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes53%
Trailer
Plot summary
At the Lusman Arms, a former luxury hotel now being renovated, Daisy Rain is killed with a hammer in her apartment. New tenants arrive: Nell Barrows, a teacher, and Steven Barrows, a medical intern. The building manager, Byron, shows them around and introduces some residents. Steven works long hours, leaving Nell by herself. She gets to know Julia Cunningham, a neighbor, and Chas Rooker, an elderly man who tells her about the building's past. Jack Lusman constructed it, Chas says, and then vanished without explanation; workers also died during the project. Odd noises travel through the intercoms. Inside a wall, Nell discovers a small ornament that contains human teeth. Julia and another tenant go missing. Nell questions Chas about Julia, and he passes her a note.
Cast
Show all 14 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Toolbox Murders (2004)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- One of the companies financing Toolbox Murders dissolved during filming, shutting production down early and forcing what the article calls creative and perfunctory editing.
- Lucky McKee was originally cast as the killer in Toolbox Murders, but dropped out to direct his own horror film The Woods (2006).
- Sheri Moon Zombie took her role in Toolbox Murders as a personal favor to Tobe Hooper, a friend of her husband, the musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie.
- Producer Jacqueline Quella owned the remake rights but never finished watching the original 1978 film, calling it a "terrible, misogynistic" film about women being murdered, and wanted the remake to differ greatly from it.
- The tools that fill the film's toolbox were not props made for the production but the personal property of Hooper himself.
- A sequel to Toolbox Murders began production in 2011, but stopped when the money ran out and producer Tony DiDio was found not to hold the franchise's chain of title; other producers finished it as Coffin Baby, released in 2013 and re-released as Toolbox Murders 2 in 2015.
