This is How Movies Should Be Made

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

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.

Maybe I'm having a relapse or something but I happened to catch this recently and vice versa. By God, this piece of mind-numbing garbage swept me away, partly because I was curious to see how low it could go. That wouldn't have been motive enough, agreed, but the photography was lurid and quite nicely done, all at the same time. And Klaus Kinski! First of all -- that face, unequaled in its unequability. Second, what is "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" and "Fitzcarraldo" doing in this junk? Then there is Talia Balsam, Martin's daughter, whose appearance rises just far enough above mediocrity to pass "prettiness" without achieving "glamorous." She always looks somewhat startled and frightened, regardless of what's going on around her. I like that in a woman. Her range as an actress, judging from the three films I've seen her in, is moderate but appealing. Then there is the set dresser. Now, the temptation in a bloody and insane shocker like this must be to construct a set, supposed to be a middle-class apartment building, to look like the house in "Psycho." Instead, what we see is an ordinary middle-class apartment building. Relatively speaking, anyway, since Kinski as the landlord is anything but ordinary.The musical score is by Pino Donaggio, done by the numbers, and if you've heard one Brian DePalma imitation of Hitchcock, you've heard Donaggio's score before. The plot almost defies description because it is so far beneath it. Kinski is a maniacal doctor, an ex-Nazi, who discovered by accident that he happened to love killing patients while in South American exile. For his amusement, he breeds rats, plays with a big pistol against his skull, peeks in on his few attractive tenants (no sex, so don't worry, just mutilations and blood all over). When he really wants to relax he runs newsreels of Hitler's speeches and sports a Wehrmacht officer's cap. People are killed by being nailed to furniture, impaled by a steel spike while sitting innocently in a chair (ouch), and being blasted by that hand-held cannon.It's a thought-provoking movie though. The thought it provokes is this. How can two ugly men like Klaus Kinski and Martin Balsam produce two such toothsome daughters?

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.

This movie is good/bad and there are two reasons why this movie is good and the two reasons are:1.The main character in this movie is called Docter Karl Gunther (Klaus Kinski) and i think that he is so dam freaky because every thing he does in this movie is so strange.2.All of the ways people die in this movie are great and the best way someone dies is how a man is sitting in a seat and he accidentally presses a button and a big metal spike comes out and kills him.Over all if u like good suspense horror movies u should watch this movie and my rating for this movie is six out of 10.