Crawlspace (1986) Directed by David Schmoeller

Really can't say this is a great movie but at least is an entertaining one to watch.

Klaus Kinski as a serial killer and the son of an old deranged Nazi surgeon. That's all you need to hear basically, in order to become at the very least remotely interested in this movie. And indeed, the movie its concept is enough to keep things interesting and it's the main reason why the movie works out as a 'fun' and entertaining one.

Any movie involving Klaus Kinski as a mad man is worth watching in my opinion. In this movie he's a serial killer, with a dubious past, who now runs an apartment house for women. He spends most of his time crawling through the crawlspaces, to peep on his young and attractive tenants. That's also how I imagine Kinski spend his time at home; crawling through the crawlspaces, looking either for someone to peep on or to kill. Seriously, this guy was a genius but totally insane as well.

So why isn't this movie great and why isn't it better known? Well, in all honesty simply because it isn't always being a very good movie. The Kinski spends a lot of time talking about killing people but how many people does he actually kill in the movie? Really not all that many and the movie soon turns into a repetitive one as well. There are long periods in which nothing is really happening and perhaps it also was a mistake for the movie to not really feature a strong leading male or female character opposite the Kinski one. A hero protagonist so to speak. It has a bunch of much smaller characters but no one that has more than 15 minutes of screen time, aside from the Kinski character of course.

It still does feel like a typical and great early slasher at times, with perhaps even some hints of an Italian Giallo movie in it, with its fine camera-work by Sergio Salvati and the musical score by Pino Donaggio. But all of the fine moments aren't quite enough to cover up the movie its lacking script and disappointing amount of graphic killings or gore.

I enjoyed the movie for Klaus Kinski and the madness and creepiness of his performance and character but other than that, this is a rather forgettable low-budget horror/slasher that isn't ever doing enough with the story.

6/10

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