A tightly made horror film written & directed by David Schmoeller. College student Talia Balsam rents an apartment from landlord Klaus Kinski and soon realizes that it's not just rats running around the building's crawlspaces. Kinski is absolutely demented, following in the steps of his Nazi doctor father and coming up with clever ways to kill people. He's a rancid peeping Tom who puts a gun carrying one bullet to his head, deciding it's safe to continue killing if he doesn't blow his brains out. It's a creepy movie to say the least. Balsam is pretty appealing and there's a great music score by Pino Donaggio. Director Schmoeller has an amusing cameo early in the film.

A retired doctor (Klaus Kinski), who is also the son of a Nazi surgeon, rents out apartments to young women so he can crawl through the air ducts and spy on them. Of course, with Nazi blood running through his veins, spying is not all he has in mind."Crawlspace" is, unfortunately, not a very well known film. Sure, slashers in the 1980s were common enough, and being a Charles Band production, you might have your doubts. But this was during his Empire years, when he was producing such greats as "Re-Animator". And this is no typical slasher: the focus is on the subversive nature of the killer, not on the body count (which is actually rather low). Band's influence can be seen in only one real way: the re-use of sets from the movie "Troll", which helped keep the budget low.As horror historian and ambassador Jon Kitley says, "Despite the unique storyline, it is really Kinski that makes this movie memorable." Kitley says he was "amazed at the sheer talent" of Kinski. This is absolutely true: while the film could have starred anyone, Kinski's look, voice and mannerisms really give him the rich, creepy feeling the character of Dr. Gunther needs. All else is background to his presence, making him something of an anti-hero.Director David Schmoeller really gets in there with angles, and shows us just how tight those crawlspaces are that Gunther worms his way into. It's not quite claustrophobic, but pushes the boundaries of where we think a man can hide. Schmoeller, along with Ken Hall, went on to write the screenplay for and direct "Puppet Master". Frankly, I think this is the better film.I was somewhat confused by the Friedrich Nietzsche photograph on the office wall, the Nazi film and the Nazi hat. I understand the Nazi ideals and beliefs somehow came from Gunther's father, who fled Germany to raiuse the family in Argentina. But to lump Nietzsche in with the Nazis is just misguided, at best.If you can find a copy of this, pick it up. Rent it, or buy it. Netflix has it available for you, but I really think this is one of those films any horror buff should have in their personal collection. I am not sure what is on the DVD as far as special features, but if any film is worthy of some great features, this would be the one.

He's a voyeur's delight, this Kinski chap, smearing his thick lips with lipstick and watching Adolf Hitler speeches in his attic, where he has assembled a good number of torture instruments and weapons. He watches a lot of Hitler's filmed speeches on a screen in his attic, even saluting once in awhile--that is, when he isn't busy slithering around the crawlspace to watch his pretty tenants through the vents or distract them with noises they might attribute to mice or rats.His fondness for being a voyeur takes up most of the running time of this brief thriller and the payoff is only a few scenes of real horror in between long stretches of minimal suspense. But the last fifteen minutes are the most suspenseful, as his chase through the crawlspace begins in earnest when one of his tenants (TALIA BALSAM) discovers his favorite hiding place. The final confrontation scene, however, is a distinct letdown and ends much too abruptly.Good for a few chills, but really not satisfying enough as a thriller to please most horror fans. A scene involving a man seated on a special kind of chair has a certain stabbing effect, but most of the killings occur off screen and only the results are shown in brief shots.Fans of KLAUS KINSKI will probably want to see this. Others beware. He's quite a menacing character and could easily have followed in the footsteps of Conrad Veidt if he'd chosen to do films in the U.S.A., playing Nazis and other villainous types as Veidt did.

"Crawlspace" is a somewhat odd, short and righteously forgotten 80's horror quickie that features cult-icon Klaus Kinski in his umpteenth role as deranged German psychopath. He plays former doctor Karl Gunther who now owns an apartment building in America. He exclusively rents out the rooms to beautiful young girls so that he can spy on them through the ventilation system and eventually kill them in his laboratory attic. Dr. Gunther has even more issues, since he's a Nazi by inheritance and also plays Russian roulette games in an empty room. Unless if I totally missed the point of "Crawlspace" being a biting satire on voyeurism, there's very little to recommend about this film. The story is mainly dull and predictable, the murder sequences are painfully tame and Kinski is only a shadow of the actor he was during the 70's and early 80's. But, considering the quality of the screenplays he was offered during his final years, I can hardly blame him. Many story lines that are rich on potential remain entirely unexplained, like caged girl up in the attic or Karl Gunther's surgeon years in Buenos Aires where he fled to after WWII. The music is rather creepy and Dr. Gunther surely has some interesting torture devices standing in his attic (but they're not fully used). I personally expected a lot more from this, because director David Schmoeller previously made the minor cult-classic "Tourist Trap", which happens to be one of my all-time favorite suspense flicks.