Crawlspace (1986)

Crawlspace

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

(Didn't Like It)

Netflix Synopsis: Karl Gunther spends his downtime stalking his boarding house's female tenants from hidden passages and carrying out kinky, sadistic experiments

The Peeps:  David Schmoeller (writer, director); Klaus Kinski, Talia Balsam

Quick Run Down:  Slightly Atmospheric, Tries to Be Clever But Isn't, Mostly Dull

Worth the Watch?:  Unfortunately, No

Dr. Karl Gunther (Klaus Kinski) is a sadistic, stalking, sociopathic, son of a Nazi surgeon (say that six times swiftly!) that runs an apartment complex occupied by only woman.  After killing one of the tenants off, he has a vacancy.  Time to search for another victim!  Enter Lori (Talia Balsam).  She takes a room, and, soon, we are seeing Gunther crawl around in the air ducts of the complex and spy on all of his tenants through vents in the walls.  Gunther can't take the temptation for too long, though - the urge to kill is strong in this one.  Start the savagery!

I was really hoping Crawlspace would be a good movie.  I recently watched a clip of Tourist Trap, a 1979 slasher flick directed by David Schmoeller (who wrote and directed Crawlspace also) and really enjoyed it.  I immediately went to Netflix to see what I could find of the director's, and, sure, enough - this film popped up.  Unfortunately, it's not very good.  The '80's brought us some great horror keepers, but time has proved itself executioner to some of them.  This film is one such victim. 

While the premise lays grounds for some really cool things to transpire, Crawlspace never really hits any notes of tension or terror.  Klaus Kinski is incredibly creepy in the film - with his intense eyes, strange-moving, fat pink lips, and gentle voice, but he alone is not enough to carry a mostly dull and uninteresting story.  Most of the film uses Kinski tapping a knife onto a small, metal, marble-like ball to create a strange noise and handling mice as a means to scare his tenants.  I don't think this sounds scary, and I know it doesn't work in the film.  It just gets annoying and creates questions that shoot plot holes in the flick.  When things do speed up a little, the movie attempts to use tricks and inventions to make Dr. Gunther seem clever and intelligent, but they are mostly uninspired and kind of boring.  This may be an example of the times, as mentioned earlier, but I honestly can't say if it would have worked in the '80's either.  It would have been cool, but it would have been forgettable too.  And, then ... that's pretty much it.  No one dies until about 40 minutes into the film, and then you have a LOT of people die in the last 15 or so.  Thinking about it, now, the film kinda feels like really bad sex...

Oh, and there's a Hitler twist in Kinski's character that might have worked had the filmmaker's seemingly not forgot about it then decided to just throw it back in there, anyway.  It's so drastic that I literally thought Kinski was going to have a twin.  That still wouldn't of made it any better, though.

So, if you're into 80's slasher flicks, you might enjoy this.  Schmoeller pulls off some decent atmosphere at time, and Kinski really is good at being a weirdo.  Overall, though, Crawlspace is mostly dull and fails at its attempts to be clever (80's or not).  If you still wanna check it out, go for it.  It's on Netflix!

"Who's swimming in your bathtub?"