Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Memorable, crazy movie

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A team of elite commandos are sent into a top secret military base with instructions to rescue the scientists who are apparently under attack from escaped prisoners. What they find is something very strange and different...Australia has produced some high quality horror in recent times, this sadly - in spite of some sterling efforts - isn't one of them. Justin Dix's (director/co-producer/co-writer) film is guilty of lifting from a whole bunch of other sci-fi/horror films to the point where the smart ideas in the narrative are practically squashed. Everything from Aliens and Scanners to Event Horizon are greased in to maintain a viable interest factor, a shame because the low budget is never an issue as the debut director shows a keen eye for atmosphere setting.The facility that the characters find themselves in, as they fight for survival, is splendidly awash with a futuristic metallic sheen. While claustrophobia, as the title suggests, is one of the key character's of the piece. Acting is fine, no ham or cheese here, and in spite of the leanings from elsewhere, pic is never dull. It's not one for genre fans to base their evening in by the fire with, but it's just above average and shows Dix to have some potential behind the camera. 6/10

IMDb truly baffles me sometimes. The score for Crawlspace stands at 4.8 at the time of writing which is ridiculously low for such a competent, not to mention fun, piece of film making. Premise - a military team is sent in to an underground complex ("Australia's version of Area 51" one character notes) with the mission of eliminating a group of escaped prisoners and saving the scientists. Of course it all goes wrong, and that's about all you need to know.No, actually what you need to know is that this hangs together way better than 90% of the other Aliens derived plots out there. The similarities to Aliens are evident at every turn, from the way the military team interacts with one another (much like James Cameron's colonial marines), to the motion trackers and a lead protagonist who bears more than an uncanny resemblance to Michael Biehn. Sure it rips of Aliens, but it rips it off well and if like me you've been waiting for over 25 years for a film that had that Aliens vibe going for it then you will love this.There's another layer to Crawlspace too though - a pretty intriguing psychological mystery plot woven through that hides just enough answers to keep your interest. But, like all good old school movies, it doesn't try to get too clever and the end is obvious but deeply entertaining including a couple of kiss-off lines that I said right along with the actors and then grinned my head off.I dunno, I suppose kids these days want something different from movies than we did in my generation. When I go into a sci fi horror movie about soldiers vs underground monsters, all I really want is some gore, some action, and some entertainment and Crawlspace delivered on all accounts. 4.8 - no way. This is a solid 6. But I'm giving it an 8 just to counterbalance some of the insanity.

Some military unit is sent to a secret Australian/US military facility to kill everyone. On their kill list are a bunch of people in orange jumpsuits. We meet one of them, a pretty blonde girl. She's hiding in the vent ducts. The facility is on high alert, security teams are shooting anything in sight.The military unit runs into this girl and it turns out that the commander knows the girl--it's his wife who he thought was dead. But there's something else in the facility-- some giant ape that is chasing them. The unit together with the girl escape in a room where they find other people. They are researchers who know what goes on in the facility. One of them talks about hallucinations, another about biomechanics. The blonde has a scar on her scull, she demands to know what they did to her. She takes one of the researchers with her, the unit takes the boss and his assistant with the them.We learn that the blonde was indeed an experiment subject. She was military and volunteered for this program. Part of her brain was removed and replaced with part of another subject's brain. The goal of the project was to create psychics with the power to control other people's thoughts/ to implant hallucinations in their minds. At the same time other people became the guardian's of a person's mind, to protect it from psychics. All this because as the boss says, war is too important to be left in the hands of the military. We learn some more about the relationship of the commander with the blonde. And eventually we find out what happens with all these people.I wasn't expecting much from this movie. People confined in a "crawlspace" rarely make for an entertaining movie. Although in this case people spend a lot of time in vents and ducts. And people going mad and hallucinating also makes for terrible movies. Put those two together and it sounds like you'll end up with an awful movie. But I'm glad to say that it's not the case with this movie at all. Amber Clayton is absolutely gorgeous. There's a bit of horror and some gore. But what impressed me were the ideas, the twists and surprises. Nothing turns out as expected at all, and just as you think you've figured things out, they hit you with another unexpected thing. The script is rich and shows depth, far more than most sci-fi/action/horror movies. Crawlspace is a remarkable effort.

I am huge fan of the Horror/Sci-Fi/Military genre that takes the viewer into the darker recesses of our imagination and pits science against the occult. Thus after coming across this film during a google search for the like, I wasted little time ordering a copy - it looked that good.The first turn off for me while viewing 'Crawlspace' was the commandos receiving the order to kill all prisoners of the facility on sight. What has Australia become? Some kind of neo down under police state with kangaroos and koalas? That sequence alone destroyed my suspension of disbelief and put me into a state of bad humor toward the picture.Moving on, the so called elite commandos seemed awkward moving with weapons in their hands ... almost as if the set had lacked a military adviser who had actually served in an armed force. None of the actors convinced me for even a moment that they were playing soldiers, rather than actors with prop guns.After the first monster appeared my spirits rose a bit, only to fall further again once the reveal was made as to what was really going on. On top of all that - and perhaps it is because I am not Australian - the acting just seemed flat and lifeless and lacking oomph or flow. Maybe that form of acting is popular 'down under' I cannot say.In short, I wanted to like the film. I am a huge fan of IFC. But the best part of the movie hands down was Peta Sergeant's screen time - but not her acting. She is quite easy on the eyes.I will rate the film a three for effort. So if you are a fan of the Mil/Sci-fi/horror genre who is dying for his next fix, you can do much better than 'Crawlspace' - much better.