in the film as a personal favor to Tobe Hooper, who was friends with her husband, musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie. The tools in the toolbox belonged to Hooper himself. One of the production companies financing the film dissolved during filming, shutting production down early and resulting in some creative and perfunctory editing. Release Toolbox Murders first premiered at the Fest Fearless Tales Genre Fest at the Victoria Theatre on March 11–14, 2004. Later that year it was screened at Scotland's Dead By Dawn Horror Film Festival on April 22–25. Home media The film was released on DVD by Live/Artisan on March 15, 2005. It was later released on special edition was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment on April 15 and as a regular edition on May 16 both that same year. Reception On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 53% based on , with a weighted average rating of 6/10. Ed Gonzales from Slant Magazine gave the film a negative review, stating that "Aesthetically and theoretically, Toolbox Murders may be Hooper’s most impressive film in years", but criticized the film's characters, and "ludicrous supernatural plot". TV Guides Maitland McDonagh graded the film 2 / 5 stars, calling it "an excuse for a series of stalk-and-slash scenes". Film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, stating that the "Decent production values do little to elevate this predictable 1970s-style gorefest". Film Threat gave the film a mixed review, writing, "Left in the hands of a lesser director, Toolbox Murders could have been a downright stupid haunted house with gore movie. But Hooper’s keen eye for creeping shadows and great art direction by Steven R. Miller give it an atmospheric punch. The scenes of violence manage to be both graphic and chilling, lending weight to an otherwise silly sounding plot. Sadly, although entertaining, the film never quite lives up to expectations. The mix of black humour, supernatural mystery and straight up slasher horror never completely mesh and you can’t helping thinking that things would have been better if they’d just stuck to a subgenre." Variety wrote, "Toolbox may not renew the splatter genre in any significant way, but the chills and kills prove Hooper, when armed with the right script, can still tighten the fright screws". Felix Vasquez from Cinema Crazed wrote, "I’ll admit The Toolbox Murders will never win any awards in the horror