10 Hidden Gem Slasher Horror Movies

6. The Toolbox Murders

Dressed to Kill
Cal-Am Artists

In case the title wasn't a giveaway, The Toolbox Murders is based around a masked fella who kills people with a wide array of instruments you'd find in most toolboxes.

Prior to becoming widely available in the 2000s, this 1978 feature garnered a reputation for being a gruesome video nasty thanks to being banned in the UK. Truth be told, The Toolbox Murders is no more graphic than your average horror offering, but censors of the time were in the midst of banning anything even remotely bloody.

For the most part, The Toolbox Murders focusses on the whodunit aspect of its killer as bodies pile up in an apartment complex. Even when this Dennis Donnelly-helmed picture reveals the identity of its masked murderer, there are still a couple of swerves to come. Plus, this is a film that uses electric drills, hammers, screwdrivers, nail guns and more as inventive murder weapons.

It certainly not worth the notoriety that plagued it for so long, and The Toolbox Murders is one of those essential slasher films that any horror hound worth their salt should be checking out. Also, this is a movie that the legendary Stephen King has as one of his all-time favourites, so that should tell you all you need to know.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.