Crawlspace (1986)

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Little sense can be made from this lackluster from Charles Band and Empire Pictures. Klaus Kinski is completely insane as an ex-Nazi doctor who killed and experimented on people during the Holocaust, and he now spies on women from the ventilation duct (hence, crawlspace) of his apartment building. He likes to: keep a woman locked up in an animal cage with her tongue in a glass jar along with other body parts, play with rats, burn and cut himself, put on make-up while watching old Third Reich footage, experiment with various torture devices, and jot down notes about how much he likes to kill in his journal. Finally, he goes off the deep end, and he starts murdering everyone he comes across in his demented Nazi-like fashion. A cat and mouse chase ensues between Kinski and the lead heroine (a good Talia Balsam in a wasted role) until a somewhat bloody climax.Not much substance is achieved in this, and good production values, decent direction by David Shmoeller and a suspenseful Pino Donaggio soundtrack is wasted on a weak, senseless plot. Kinski's craziness is quite amusing, but he's mostly confused and unresponsive. Gore-hounds and slasher fanatics will be disappointed at the lack of blood, and the thrills are limited. This is unintentionally funny at best.

Amusing film about an apartment with solely female tenants that suffers from an infestation of rats and pint sized Germans. Dr. Karl Gunther, the son of a Mengele-type Nazi doctor, is the superintendent of this complex with a predilection for renting only to women so he can of course spy on them via his completely dust-free airvent system all the while harassing them with his various rats-in-the-wall contraptions. I guess simply watching them in various states of undress was too lowbrow for this movie. Anyway, when a nosy tenant is dispatched by one of his rather creative but not too efficient killing devices it opens up a room for rent for another victim of the terror from tiny town. Enter Lori Bancroft whom the Dr. becomes instantly smitten with. After becoming acquainted with her fellow housemates (did I mention Tane!) she begins to hear strange noises from the airvents and becomes increasingly distressed. When Lori is visited by Josef Steiner, who by the way comes off less grieving brother and more creepy jerk, she is informed that Dr. Gunther was implicated in a series of multiple deaths while he was a doctor in South America with Josef's brother being one of them. This bombshell revelation leads Lori to investigate what's inside Dr. Gunther's apartment exposing his twisted reality. Woman in a cage with tongue cut out. Check. Nazi memorabilia. Check. Torture devices. Check. Backissues of Cat Fancy. None, though that would of been hilarious.Crawlspace needs to be categorized with movies like Chucky, Troll, and Puppet Master as films whose villains you must suspend belief in in order to watch. Klaus Kinski knows his limitations and doesn't try to play counter to that but the notion of this little man with his bizarre facial contortions as he speaks his lines as menacing to humans five feet or taller is laughable. Young children maybe but adults, come on! The concept of Dr. Gunther spying on the ladies is the kind of sleazy titillation that would of enhanced the watchability of this film since it is such a major component of the storyline yet it does no such thing. We get one topless scene by Tane McClure (see I knew there was a reason she was in this!) and that's it. Weak. Sauce. I did enjoy his bizarre killing techniques especially the chair with the built-in surprise as well as his sickening relationship with a woman he keeps in a cage. The final encounter with Lori and a lipstick smeared Dr. Gunther in full Nazi uniform is awfully silly, even for trashy films, and makes me wonder why the first forty minutes was so tame. Talia Balsam as the lead Lori Bancroft with her unflattering wardrobe is not a bad looking woman by any means (she was married to George Clooney) just not the perfect choice for this film. The lovely Tane! would have made a better object of desire. I guess Klaus couldn't see that high. Music is done by Pino Donaggio but really folks how many times have you left a movie and said "That movie really sucked but that score rocked!". That would be none. Tane!

I think that this is overall a good movie, Klaus Kinski is perfect for the part of Dr. Gunther and the whole Idea of the movie is great. I never want to live alone. I feel that although there have been better 80's horror films, this is at least worth watching because everyone will have a different opinion on this film. I feel that the majority of people will like it even if it scares you or not. The film could have gone into more depth about his life with maybe some flashbacks...but other than that I enjoyed it and I think other people will as well. I watched it twice on IFC and both times I was still was trying to bite my nails.

The film is just limp. You may desire more of an introduction than that when first reading someone's response after seeing a hunk of trash such as "Crawlspace", but it's my only accurate description. It seems to go nowhere and feels like two hours when it is only around 20 minutes long. The ending feels rather hackneyed as if many deaths were cut out in support of time constraints. One thing I felt the film lacked was any kind of real thrills. It's all anti-climactic. The film is simple in it's grotesque nature, but really doesn't shock as it does bore you to tears. Kinski plays the owner of an apartment complex who spies on women through a crawlspace which leads to each room via ventilation shafts. He eyes a particular young college women played by Talia Balsam. The film isn't really that violent so even that can't help give this film any momentum. It's simply a lifeless exercise with Kinski doing all he can with his sicko doctor whose father was a nazi. He loves to kill as he explains, but director Schmoeller never allows us to see much violence. It's sleaze without much sleaziness. The film is just not worth the time unless you're a Kinski die-hard.