Crawlspace is one of the creepiest films you'll ever see; largely thanks to Kinski's portrayal of Gunther, the son of a Nazi war criminal- and seasoned serial killer- who runs a boarding house for women. Rarely do films give you an idea what lays in store, so quickly. And few actors possess the natural creep factor that Kinski exudes.After fleeing from Argentina- where he was a doctor, practicing his trade by, killing off all his patients- Gunther would settle in America; where he would build a mansion that would make Holmes proud: complete with a crawlspace for voyeurism; and all manner of booby traps- to prevent anyone who might discover his secrets from escaping.Gunther keeps one of his former tenants, hostage in a cage, as a pet. He cut out her tongue, so that she may never speak of what she's seen, but he keeps her around for someone to talk to.He also knocked off his last tenant, and, considering such, is looking for someone to fill the vacancy. Enter our protagonist, Lori.Whereas he first began killing (the terminally ill) for reasons of compassion, he now suffers from an insatiable bloodlust, and has become addicted to killing. It makes him feel closer to his father.Though, after each murder, he leaves it up to fate to decide whether he will continue on...to kill again. He draws blood, smears it on a bullet and uses it to play a round of Russian roulette. If he does not blow his head off, he considers that divine sanction to continue on.However, he didn't count on his newest tenants tenacity, and will to live. Perhaps she is just lucky, or perhaps this is what fate ultimately had in store.Worth watching to see the master-of-creepiness in action...and for all those awesome booby trap kills.6 out of 10.

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.

Klaus Kinski plays Gunther, an apparently retired doctor who is the landlord of an apartment block. His appearance is effete, certainly he gives off the impression of being very withdrawn. It becomes apparent that his father was a Nazi genocide employed by the SS and the family minus dad flew to Argentina after the war. Little Gunther became Doctor Gunther and started to "euthanise" dozens of patients suffering from minor ailments. I suppose in 1986 this would have seemed fanciful, however in the UK, and after the revealed murders of Dr Harold Shipman, it is somewhat less so now.Gunther has however got bored with these less graphic murders and has now taken to polishing off his all female tenants who he spies on through vents connected by a network of crawlspaces.One of the most disturbing things about this movie is that Gunther keeps a young lady in a cage in his room. He's cut her tongue out and cut most of her hair off, who knows what else, she looks very sallow. Her position is that she is there as someone for Gunther to talk to. She appears not to be frightened that Gunther will torture her any more. Rather she is simply suffering from seeing the terrible things he does to others, she passes him a note at one point begging him to kill her.Her character is seemingly a perverse reference to Maria Falconetti's performance as Joan of Arc in the silent movie The Passion Of Joan Of Arc. Like in the silent movie she is voiceless and expressing deep sorrow and anguish solely via facial movements. One thing that I love to see in movies is excellent interior design. Rooms can have extremely potent psychological effect if done right. The interior design of an apartment can reveal a lot about the personality of the character living there if it's done properly, and can be an excellent short cut in setting up character development. The apartments in this movie are done very well. Gunther seems to enjoy draping everything, cutting out the straight edges, even a cage of rats is draped in tasselled velvet. He seems fastidious and prissy, a coolly observant psychopath.Gunther almost seems to see himself as a scientist, he has no real vendetta against women, and he writes a journal exploring his addiction. It's a calm movie at points, even though he's turned his apartment into a trap complete with models of torture devices and a mutilated woman in a cage.My favourite spectacle in the movie though is a chocolate party that a bunch of the female tenants have. Chocolate and tequila milkshakes chocolate, chocolate cakes, chocolate biscuits, basically they turn the apartment into a chocolate bordello. How great for all us male voyeurs to see such a bizarrely grotesque feminine ritual!The big thing the movie has though is Klaus Kinski's acting, it's rare that a director will focus on an actor's face closeup for any substantial amount of time and let an actor show their talent. We see Klaus Kinski play Russian Roulette, seated on a chair on a chequerboard floor, the facial nuance is brilliant.

Crawlspace (1986) ** (out of 4) Klaus Kinski plays the son of a Nazi who rents out his apartment rooms to pretty women so that he can spy on them and then kill them. This could have been a rather interesting film but absolutely nothing happens here. I mean zero, zilch, absolutely nothing. I'm really not sure what the point of the film was, although it's clear the director was trying to get into the mind of a killer yet we never know what the hell Kinski is thinking or why he's doing what he is. Kinski is quite amusing in this role but it's a wasted opportunity.