The Toolbox MurdersMovies like The Toolbox Murders
- Key Features:
- Serial killer, Slasher, Apartment complex, Abduction, Murder, Violence-high, Investigation, Trauma, Grief, Revenge
- Tone:
- gritty, serious, suspense-driven
- Target Audience:
- Horror fans, Slasher film enthusiasts, Suspense thriller viewers
- Emotional Arc:
- Anxiety → Dread → Terror
The Toolbox Murders

A serial killer, plagued by the memory of a fatal car accident, uses various tools to murder female tenants of a Los Angeles apartment complex, then abducts a teenaged girl who lives there with her family. When the police express doubt that the murders are connected to the girl's disappearance, her brother sets out to search for her on his own.
The Toolbox Murders
A historic Hollywood hotel houses a supernatural evil. It's been subdued for decades, but when renovations start, a series of murders take place.

A woman trying to recover from a sexual attack is locked in a posh apartment with a corpse of the very man she's been dreaming would murder her. She tries to hang on to reality when objects around her seem to come to life.

An estranged family take a trip to the desert in their used RV and become stranded and isolated in the scorching terrain. They soon learn their RV holds terrible, haunting secrets, and it starts killing them off one by one.

A man who runs an apartment house for women is the demented son of a Nazi surgeon who has the house equipped with secret passageways, hidden rooms and torture and murder devices.

In the town of Cutter, most people keep to themselves. But when John comes home to find his girlfriend missing, he sneaks into his neighbor's house, finding his girlfriend and several other kidnapped people tied up in the basement. When the neighbor come home, John is forced to get out of the house alive and lead the group to safety.

Five young individuals agree to live in an isolated lodge together and have their daily activities filmed. But soon the house is locked down and they each run into the murderous clutches of a faceless serial killer who may not be working alone.

The Puppetman, a convicted killer on death row, always maintained his innocence saying that it was an evil force controlling his body as he slaughtered his victims. Now Michal, the killer's daughter, begins to suspect that there may be some truth to her father's claim when those around her begin to die in brutal ways. She must try and break the curse of The Puppetman before all her loved ones are killed.

Two men wake up to find themselves shackled in a grimy, abandoned bathroom. As they struggle to comprehend their predicament, they discover a disturbing tape left behind by the sadistic mastermind known as Jigsaw. With a chilling voice and cryptic instructions, Jigsaw informs them that they must partake in a gruesome game in order to secure their freedom.

A ferocious, misogynistic, and morally deprived serial killer is active in Las Vegas. Obsessed with the collapse of the Twin Towers, and with Nazi tendencies, he even targets underage girls.

The chilling and relentless Jigsaw killer returns to terrorize the city once again. When a gruesome murder victim emerges with unmistakable traces of Jigsaw's sinister methods, Detective Eric Matthews is thrust into a high-stakes investigation. To his surprise, apprehending Jigsaw seems almost too easy, but what he doesn't realize is that being caught is merely another piece of Jigsaw's intricate puzzle.

An axe murderer terrorizes a small Northern California mountain community, while two young computer-obsessed adults attempt to solve the killings.

Following the brutal rape of a young woman by a gang of construction workers, a mysterious figure wearing a motorcycle helmet and driving a gold hearse begins hunting the perpetrators down. The masked avenger's weapon of choice, obviously, is a nail gun, with which he (or could it be she?) takes out the rapists one by one. Just who is this murderous vigilante?

A family of sadistic butchers lives deep inside the backcountry. From the dead of winter to the dog days of summer, anyone who crosses their path is dead meat.

A seemingly innocent man is abducted by a notorious L.A. serial killer, who forces his victims to switch roles with him so that he can enact his own capture, torture and murder.

College student Ben inherits a curious old mechanical box that churns out voodoo dolls. When a shadowy figure starts using the box to murder Ben's friends, he must find the killer.

A charismatic psycho suspected of killing two innocent campers in a cold-blooded double homicide grows increasingly unstable as his suburban empire starts to crack at the foundations.

A woman moves into a Manhattan apartment, where she learns that the previous tenant's life ended under mysterious circumstances.

A psychotic man, troubled by his childhood abuse, kills and mutilates young women and local models on the streets of New York City.

A troubled detective travels to Memphis in order to track down a pair of serial killers.

Like any other teenage girl, Tara is just surviving high school — yet her father and mother seem strangely distant. Amidst a nearby spree of gruesome ax murders, Tara has sightings of terrifying entities, forcing her to question her own sanity and shocking ancestry.

An obsessive, insubordinate homicide cop is convinced a serial killer is loose in the Hollywood area and disobeys orders in order to catch him.

Julia becomes worried about her boyfriend Holt when he explores the dark urban legend of a mysterious videotape said to kill the watcher seven days after viewing. She sacrifices herself to save her boyfriend and in doing so makes a horrifying discovery: there is a "movie within the movie" that no one has ever seen before.

A demented handyman comes to the rescue of a young woman, then imprisons her in his basement.

A burned-out New York police detective teams up with a college psychoanalyst to track down a vicious serial killer randomly stalking and killing various young women around the city.

The thing that waits under your bed, hides in the closet, stalks your dreams… is waiting for you. At least Emma Wright knew that at the age of 7 when she was wrongly accused of murdering her sister. Emma knew it was the Stickman. After years of isolation she finally has her demons under control and is released.

Three young people check into the Meadow View Inn for a night's rest, fully unaware of the inn's sick-minded employees and their nefarious intentions.

After the discovery of a mysterious VHS tape, a brutish police SWAT team launches a high-intensity raid on a remote warehouse, only to discover a sinister cult compound whose collection of pre-recorded material uncovers a nightmarish conspiracy.

An idyllic small town is rocked when Aubrey Fleming, a bright and promising young woman, is abducted and tortured by a sadistic serial killer. When she manages to escape, the traumatized girl who regains consciousness in the hospital insists that she is not who they think she is and that the real Aubrey Fleming is still in mortal danger.

A woman escapes from the man who is about to rape her, but leaves her purse behind. Afraid that her attacker might come after her, she goes to the police, but with no proof of the incident, they can do nothing. In fact, the man does use the information in her bag and comes to her apartment with the intent of rape, but she sprays him in the face with insect repellent, and then holds him captive. She is then faced with deciding whether to go to the police who might not believe her and release him, or to kill him.

True-crime writer Ellison Oswald is in a slump; he hasn't had a best seller in more than 10 years and is becoming increasingly desperate for a hit. So, when he discovers the existence of a snuff film showing the deaths of a family, he vows to solve the mystery. He moves his own family into the victims' home and gets to work. However, when old film footage and other clues hint at the presence of a supernatural force, Ellison learns that living in the house may be fatal.

Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities with a mysterious tie to her past.

As a child, Ed was cleaning his father’s hunting rifles - a surprise birthday treat for the old man - when one of them went off, hitting and killing his mother. On seeing the bloodshed, his father flew into a murderous rage - Ed just barely escaped with his life. Now in his teens, he returns home; he doesn’t expect to find his father, still there, waiting for a chance to settle the score . . .

There is something horribly wrong with the bodies found in the dark city streets. Some are mutilated while others have the Price equation (wΔz = Cov (w,z) = βwzVz) carved into their flesh. Detective Eddie Argo and his new partner Helen Westcott unearth the meaning of the odd equation and realise each victim is being offered a gruesome choice: kill your loved ones, or be killed. Before long it becomes clear that the perpetrator has suffered a similar fate and is now coping by seeking a way to solve this philosophical dilemma.

After the brutal murder of her twin sister, Darcy goes after those responsible by using haunted items as her tools for revenge.

When awkward teen Ronald Wilby accidentally kills a young girl whose sister rejected his affections, his overbearing mother decides to hide him from the law by creating a concealed room in their home for him to live.

An artist slowly goes insane while struggling to pay his bills, work on his paintings, and care for his two female roommates, which leads him taking to the streets of New York after dark and randomly killing derelicts with a power drill.

Following Jigsaw's grisly demise, Detective Mark Hoffman is commended as a hero, but Agent Strahm is suspicious, and delves into Hoffman's past. Meanwhile, another group of people are put through a series of gruesome tests.

A picture-perfect family is torn apart after Tyler finds a cache of disturbing images in his father's possession. He begins to suspect that the man he trusts most in the world may be responsible for the murder of 13 women ten years prior.

Nursing student Asuka has just moved into an apartment complex with her parents and younger brother. On the first night in her new room, she is awoken by a strange scratching sound coming from the apartment of her neighbor, a reclusive old man who has refused all attempts at communication. Concerned over his well being, Asuka enters his home only to find him dead from malnutrition. Worse, it looks as if he had been trying to claw his way into her room. Asuka learns that there have been a number of strange deaths in the complex over the years from Shinobu, the handyman cleaning up the old man’s apartment. Even the girls at school whisper rumors of it being haunted.

When a tough-as-nails reporter is lead to a mysterious cult and the evil Pinhead, any moment could be her last.

Law enforcement finds itself chasing the ghost of a man dead for over a decade, embroiled in a diabolical new game that's only just begun.

In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.

As he helps a young artist with her upcoming exhibition, the owner of a mannequin shop's deadly, suppressed desires come to the surface.

Detectives use clues from various recording devices to piece together events surrounding a massacre involving bus passengers at an abandoned gas station.

An obsessed cop is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, N.Y. but when his teenage daughter disappears, he drops any professional restraint to get the killer.

Dr. Feinstone escapes from the mental hospital where he has been held ever since his wife's adultery sent him on a deranged killing spree. Hoping to resume a normal life, he makes his way to a quiet Midwestern town and establishes himself in a new practice under an assumed name. Things are starting to look up for Dr. 'Caine' – that is, until the day he catches his new love in the arms of someone else. As before, the impact of romantic betrayal sends him over the edge into madness and murder, with his unfortunate patients once again bearing the brunt of his hostility.

High school student Paula Carson's affections are being sought after by two of her classmates: Dwight, the "bad boy", and Brian, a disturbed young man who has just been released from a mental hospital where he was committed following the suspicious death of his father. Soon after being released, more murders start happening. Is Brian back to his old tricks, or is Dwight just trying to eliminate the competition?

A tragic car accident in the middle of nowhere finds six stranded college students fighting for their lives after making a horrifying discovery in a remote farmhouse in director Edward Gorsuch's rural frightener. With no place to run and no police station for miles, these doomed students are about to discover that down home hospitality is the last thing on the minds of the murderous family who stalks them through the woods.

Ella discovers a terrifying secret when she becomes trapped in an underground storage facility. To survive she must join forces with a group of strangers, each with something to hide.

Paul Kersey is again a vigilante trying to find five punks who murdered his housekeeper and daughter in Los Angeles.

When a ruthless serial killer terrorizes a small Southern town, everyone becomes a suspect -- including local authorities. As the body count rises and the dark mystery deepens, the chief detective becomes haunted by the horrors of his past.

Jessica moves into a loft on the eighth floor of a Los Angeles apartment building called The Dante. The other tenants all seem friendly at first, but when she starts witnessing horrible deaths, she must team up with her neighbor Evan (Doom) to solve the mystery -- and uncover her own connection to the place.

Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon joins forces with Sgt. Jim Baxter to search for a serial killer who's terrorizing Los Angeles. As they track the culprit, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke's past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.

Lewis is an outwardly ordinary guy, but in reality he is hiding an obsession – revenge – against Cathy. Lewis kidnaps Cathy in broad daylight and takes her to his home, where he locks her in a soundproof cell and attempts to extract a dark secret from her past.

A small, seemingly innocuous plastic reel of film leads surveillance specialist Tom Welles down an increasingly dark and frightening path. With the help of the streetwise Max, he relentlessly follows a bizarre trail of evidence to determine the fate of a complete stranger. As his work turns into obsession, he drifts farther and farther away from his wife, family and simple life as a small-town PI.

After his gruesome encounter with a girl, and being outmatched by his own assistant, ChromeSkull resurges with a horrifying massacre of his own.

A crazed killer stalks college students who gave up their vacation to clean a deserted dormitory.

After losing an acting role and his girlfriend, Jake Scully finally catches a break: he gets offered a gig house-sitting in the Hollywood Hills. While peering through the beautiful home's telescope one night, he spies a gorgeous woman dancing in her window. But when he witnesses the girl's murder, it leads Scully through the netherworld of the adult entertainment industry on a search for answers—with porn actress Holly Body as his guide.

A maniac on the loose is committing savage acts of slaughter, and one survivor may be the only key to unmasking the serial slayer known as the Half-Moon Killer. The mysterious half-moon lockets he leaves with his victims could be the only key to unraveling his sinister motives, but will that be enough before he completes his ice-cold plot to claim his intended seven victims?

A woman finds a VHS tape on her doorstep that shows a series of gruesome tales that could be real. But the true danger is the pumpkin-faced killer that's using the tape to find his next victim.

A troubled teenage girl who’s struggling to cope with the accidental death of her father suspects that the mysterious killer stalking her hometown is not only her neighbour but her mother’s new romantic interest.

After Police Chief Carter discovers the remains of eleven women, FBI Special Agent Petrovick is recruited to profile the serial killer responsible for the infamous "boneyard" killings. As the police force, narcotics agency, and FBI lock horns, a tangled web of intrigue turns everyone into a suspect.

A teenage boy discovers the perpetrators of several brutal kidnappings in his home town.

David, an orderly at a hospital, tells his horrific story of being kidnapped and forced to play a vile game of survival.

FBI Agent Lee Harker is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer. As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.

Rachel Keller is a journalist investigating a videotape that may have killed four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video... and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring so she can save herself and her son.

Seventeen-year-old Jesse has been hearing terrifying sounds coming from his neighbor’s apartment, but when he turns on his camera and sets out to uncover their source, he encounters an ancient evil that won’t rest until it’s claimed his very soul.

While driving, an estranged couple's car is hit twice. A sheriff takes them to a motel where they hear disturbing noises from a room, realizing they're part of a deadly game.

Lt. Wakes is a vengeful police detective determined to solve the murders of his partner and an informant, and joins forces with a witness injured during the shootings. After the killers pursue the witness across the abandoned floor of a hospital, she confirms Wakes's worst fears.

A young woman studying the habits of webcam chat users from the apparent safety of her apartment witnesses a brutal murder online and is quickly immersed in a nightmare in which she and her loved ones are targeted for the same grisly fate as the first victim.

Strippers in Manhattan are being stalked and murdered by a psycho. A hard-nosed police detective and a conflicted ex-boxer-turned-private-eye, hired by the strip club owners, set out to find him before he strikes again.

When four bodies are discovered among the industrial decay and urban grime of New York City, brash young detective Mike Reilly teams with ambitious Department of Health researcher Terry Huston to uncover the cause behind their violent and inexplicable deaths. The only common factor shared by the victims? Each died exactly 48 hours after logging onto a website called feardotcom.

A masked serial killer with psychosexual issues strangles female coeds with scarves before dismembering them. When a wealthy student identifies one of the scarves and thinks she has a lead on a suspect, she becomes the killer's next target, retreating to her family's remote cliffside villa with three of her girlfriends.

Mary Giordano is a bright, intelligent student who goes to a catholic school. She also has an addiction to mystery novels and detective magazines, which inspire her to do her own detective work. When she starts snooping around on the case of a murderer of teenage girls, it gets her in hot water with her mentor Detective Jerry Gunn. But it also starts a team up with police cadet Tony Campbell. The two work together to find the murderer. But the closer Mary gets to solving the murder, the more danger she puts herself in of being the next victim.

Despite Jigsaw's death, and in order to save the lives of two of his colleagues, Lieutenant Rigg is forced to take part in a new game, which promises to test him to the limit.

Martin, a law student, takes up a job as a nightwatchman at a mortuary to fund his studies. But the mortuary harbours a dark secret, and he has to find the truth before he is implicated in a serial murder case.

A young woman's curiosity propels her to investigate a series of strange deaths in her neighborhood.

A young woman learns that she has inherited a Texas estate from her deceased grandmother. After embarking on a road trip with friends to uncover her roots, she finds she is the sole owner of a lavish, isolated Victorian mansion. But her newfound wealth comes at a price as she stumbles upon a horror that awaits her in the mansion’s dank cellars.

A young reporter enlists a top notch private eye to solve the murder of a female stripper at a Chicago nightclub.

A woman who survived the brutal killing of her family as a child is forced to confront the events of that day.

Unable to process the death of his daughter, Detective Boyd embarks on a hunt for a serial killer who murders according to a brutal tribal ritual: Muti. The only person who can help Boyd is Professor Mackles, an anthropologist who hides an unspeakable secret. The line between sanity and madness thins as Boyd goes deeper into the killer’s world.

A couple's camping trip turns into a frightening ordeal when they stumble across the scene of a horrific crime.

Claire is a lonely hairstylist who secretly murders and scalps her clients. When Olivia makes the well-intentioned mistake of asking Claire to style her hair for her wedding, she becomes dangerously obsessed, and her sanity starts to slip away with bloody consequences.

While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured to death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student at her college...

A vicious serial sex killer is on the loose, and landscape gardener and shop-window outfitter Loris is the prime suspect, thanks to his unfortunate habit of getting caught in compromising situations (for which there is always a totally innocent explanation that the police fail to spot). Undercover policewoman Jessica is assigned by eccentric police psychologist Taccone to follow Loris.

David Norton is used to being in control. As a best-selling author, he decides the fate of his characters, their lives and their deaths. But what happens when his fictional world becomes all too real?

A female psychologist wants to understand the minds of a confessed serial killer who spent the last five years in a mental hospital because of his state.

A mysterious diver hiding in Amsterdam's canal system embarks on a rampage of gruesome murders, terrifying city officials and leaving few clues for the city's best detective, who doesn't suspect that both his new girlfriend and twelve-year-old daughter may be closer than he is to finding the killer.

An FBI agent tracks a serial killer with the help of three of his would-be victims - all of whom have wildly different stories to tell.

Twins Todd and Terry seem like sweet boys -- that is, until one of them takes an axe to the face of a fellow patron at the local drive-in.

Working in the shadow of an esteemed police veteran, brash Detective Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks and his rookie partner take charge of a grisly investigation into murders that are eerily reminiscent of the city’s gruesome past. Unwittingly entrapped in a deepening mystery, Zeke finds himself at the center of the killer’s morbid game.

The sins of the past are not forgotten in this chilling suspense thriller. When the first body was discovered, it seemed a coincidence. But now homicide detective Jack Verdon has cause to worry: the victims of a series of brutal sex murders are all his former girlfriends. Suspected by the FBI agent who’s taken over the case and suspended by his captain, Jack must work outside the law if he’s to find the killer, save his future and protect what’s left of his past.

A college campus is plagued by a vicious serial killer murdering students in ways that correspond to various urban legends.

Returning from vacation, the Miller family find their home has been broken into. After cleaning up the mess they continue with their lives, shaking off the feeling of being violated. But little do they know the nightmare has just begun.

The Zodiac murders cause the lives of Paul Avery, David Toschi and Robert Graysmith to intersect.

Fourteen-year–old Megan and her best friend Amy spend a lot of time on the internet, posting videos of themselves and chatting with guys online. One night Megan chats with a guy named Josh who convinces her to meet him for a date. The next day, Megan is missing—forever. Based on actual cases of child abduction.

Mystery writer Grace Miller has killer instincts when it comes to motive - and she'll need every bit of expertise to help solve her sister's murder.

Two years ago, a young woman named Valerie was burned after entering a tanning salon. Now, Rhonda runs a local gym where all of a sudden, people are being murdered.

