Remember Tobe Hooper's remake of The Toolbox Murders from a few years ago? We'd forgotten all about it too, but our memories have been jogged this morning with the "long awaited" announcement that Toolbox Murders 2** is "finally" underway.
Hooper's movie was actually reasonably good fun, and only really a remake in that it used the same title. The original was one of the BBFC's notorious "video nasties", about a ski-masked slasher. Hooper's film is about a creature descended from Death itself that lives behind the walls of an apartment building and can run up lift shafts. It starred Angela Bettis (May) and Juliet Landau (Drusilla from Buffy and Angel) and had a cameo death by Sheri Moon Zombie.
The sequel was announced two years ago, in a flurry of info that included some production stills (so where did they come from if shooting only just started?). Back then, the synopsis was that Toolbox 2 would pick up immediately after the first, with the survivors moved to a nearby hospital (shades of Halloween 2 there) and some detectives on the case of the Toolbox Killer.
Initial reports had genre favourites Tony Todd (Candyman) and Jeffrey Combs (Reanimator) attached, but there's no mention of them now. The readily-available Lance Henriksen does seem to be aboard however, along with Brian Krause (Charmed), Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager) and just-revealed leading lady Chauntal Lewis (Seance).
The director is Dean C Jones, who did FX work on Hooper's film, and it's all happening right now. Expect it in Kim's Video Dungeon at some point.