Crawlspace

Karl Gunther is the superintendent f an apartment complex. His discerning tastes lead him to rent to only the choicest of tenants….female and beautiful. Does his leaning to the fairer sex have a more sinister reasoning or is he just a supreme pimp-daddy. Klaus Kinski is by far what makes this movie fun. There are a lot of good things happening in this movie but it would only be half the film without him. This film is producer by Empire Pictures, a now defunct Charles Band headed studio that was responsible for a lot of cool mid-80's genre films (Troll, Ghoulies and Eliminators come to mind). The direction has flare and the script is decent. The music by Pino Donaggio is excellent. It's fun but the script should have had more. I wanted to know more about the character, in particular the Gunther characters past.

The Lesson Learned: That said it wouldn't make a high brow top ten list for that year but it would make a genre fan happy. I enjoyed it and you might too. So be it.

Crazy old landlord, and former Nazi, preys upon the lady tenants of his building via a system of passages.

Being directed by David Schmoeller (maker of 1979's excellent Tourist Trap) I expected a better-than-average horror film and was sadly disappointed. While Crawlspace has its moments of creepiness, it doesn't possess hardly any of the tension or suspense that one would hope for. It basically becomes a run of mill killer-psycho movie with little imagination.

However, the film is not a complete waste. Klaus Kinski does make for a decent villain, who is one very sick and twisted character. Kinski fans will likely enjoy this movie more than most viewers.

Over all, an OK effort that could have been much better.

** out of ****

Meet Karl Gunther (played by legendary eccentric Klaus Kinski). He's the demented son of a notorious Nazi war criminal and a former doctor with his own shady past. He's now the landlord of an apartment building that strictly caters to young females. He regularly spies on the ladies from the buildings' hidden crawlspace area, and kills them as well. He even keeps a woman named Martha (Sally Brown) enclosed in a too-small cage. He keeps a diary of his thoughts and activities, to provide us with some exposition and insight into his character. After he brings in a new tenant, university student Lori Bancroft (played by Talia Balsam, the daughter of actor Martin Balsam), he begins to be visited by a Nazi hunter named Josef Steiner (Kenneth Robert Shippy).

Kinskis' performance essentially IS the movie. Overall, this brief bit of nutty mayhem, written and directed by David Schmoeller ("Tourist Trap", "Puppetmaster"), is mildly amusing but quite forgettable. Kinski, of course, is anything but, and he does seem to relish portraying this character (although he did make life miserable for Schmoeller and crew). There are a bunch of rats in this thing, some entertaining makeup effects gags (but not very much blood), excellent production design (by Giovanni Natalucci) and music (by the great Pino Donaggio), and a very nondescript (if attractive) supporting cast, including Tane McClure, the daughter of Doug McClure. Balsam is a reasonably personable heroine, but Shippy is boring and unintimidating in his part. Schmoellers' direction lacks style, and his dialogue, for the most part, ain't so hot. (He does admit that the movie isn't particularly good.)

Kinskis' presence and performance raise the rating by a point.

Future "Tremors" director Ron Underwood was the associate producer here. Schmoeller has a cameo as a rejected tenant.

Six out of 10.

Crawlspace is one of the creepiest films you'll ever see; largely thanks to Kinski's portrayal of Gunther, the son of a Nazi war criminal- and seasoned serial killer- who runs a boarding house for women. Rarely do films give you an idea what lays in store, so quickly. And few actors possess the natural creep factor that Kinski exudes.

After fleeing from Argentina- where he was a doctor, practicing his trade by, killing off all his patients- Gunther would settle in America; where he would build a mansion that would make Holmes proud: complete with a crawlspace for voyeurism; and all manner of booby traps- to prevent anyone who might discover his secrets from escaping.

Gunther keeps one of his former tenants, hostage in a cage, as a pet. He cut out her tongue, so that she may never speak of what she's seen, but he keeps her around for someone to talk to.

He also knocked off his last tenant, and, considering such, is looking for someone to fill the vacancy. Enter our protagonist, Lori.

Whereas he first began killing (the terminally ill) for reasons of compassion, he now suffers from an insatiable bloodlust, and has become addicted to killing. It makes him feel closer to his father.

Though, after each murder, he leaves it up to fate to decide whether he will continue on...to kill again. He draws blood, smears it on a bullet and uses it to play a round of Russian roulette. If he does not blow his head off, he considers that divine sanction to continue on.

However, he didn't count on his newest tenants tenacity, and will to live. Perhaps she is just lucky, or perhaps this is what fate ultimately had in store.

Worth watching to see the master-of-creepiness in action...and for all those awesome booby trap kills.

6 out of 10.

From director David Schmoeller, who gave us the enjoyably offbeat slasher Tourist Trap, Crawlspace is an equally bizarre horror starring the inimitable Klaus Kinski as Karl Gunther, a mentally unhinged landlord who has developed an addiction to killing, satisfying his urges by luring his tenants into his deadly, booby trapped apartment. When he's not in a murdering mood, Gunther can be found crawling through the air ducts of his building to spy on the women who live there, writing about killing in his diary, playing Russian roulette, or wearing Nazi regalia while watching footage of Hitler (Gunther's father was a Nazi surgeon).

For an '80s horror film, Crawlspace is fairly light on the gore and scares, but with its star in full on demented mode, the film cannot fail to entertain: whether it be carefully preparing a chair with a spring-loaded spike in the seat (nasty!), crushing rats with his bare hands, travelling at speed through the air ducts on a wheeled toboggan, smearing his face with make-up, or simply chatting to the tongue-less woman that he keeps caged in his room, Kinski's crazed performance is a delight to behold.

6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.