Crawlspace (1986)

Director: David Schmoeller

Writer: David Schmoeller

Composer: Pino Donaggio

Starring: Klaus Kinski, Talia Balsam, Barbara Whinnery, Carole Francis, Tane McClure, Sally Brown, Jack Heller, David Abbott, Kenneth Robert Shippy, David Schmoeller

More info: IMDb

Tagline: He seduces them in his mind and traps them in his crawlspace.

Plot: A man who runs an apartment house for women is the demented son of a Nazi surgeon who has the house equipped with secret passageways, hidden rooms and torture and murder devices.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again? Nein.

This is on one of those great MGM Midnite Movies double feature DVDs, this one paired with THE ATTIC (1980) a film that bored the piss out of me.  CRAWLSPACE wasn't as bad but it suffered from its length.  It's only 80 minutes but it could have used a good ten minutes trimmed from it.  Some scenes go on too long which starts begging for attention to wander.  Kinski as Karl is creepy as shit and when a new girl shows up looking to rent an apartment I couldn't for the life of me understand how she still wanted it after Karl leered at her sexually (in that disgusting, sick-o sort of way) and asked her all kinds of perv-y questions.  OK, so maybe she's just a dumb college kid. I really dug how, after each kill, he puts blood on a bullet, puts it in a gun against his head and pulls the trigger.  I'm not sure if that was supposed to give him the justification he needs to kill again or if he feels guilty about it.  It's not explained but it is brought back later so I guess that's the only reason it existed.  All of the good qualities from this film can't outweigh the slow spots and there are a few.  At least it's a lot better than THE ATTIC (1980).