Chuck Wilson's Underrated Horror Classics: Crawlspace (1986)

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

Today’s Underrated Classic is the rarely seen or talked about Klaus Kinski tour-de-force, Crawlspace from 1986 (not to be confused with the 1972 made-for-TV film of the same name). The film begins with a young girl traveling up the stairs of an apartment complex stopping at Mr. Gunther’s (Klaus Kinski) room. The door is ajar and inside she discovers several bizarre things: rats in cages, a film projector, a white cat and…a woman in a cage. Suddenly Mr. Gunter appears from out of the shadows to calmly point out that the woman cannot speak (he cut out her tongue) and that it is, “a shame…I liked you”, suddenly releasing a booby trap that impales the girl. He then plays a game of Russian Roulette (in a scene that plays out several times throughout the film) and after “wining”, he proclaims, “So be it” and quickly flips over a For Rent sign. Queue the opening credits, which play over POV shots traveling through the air ducts, aka the “crawlspace” of the apartment building, which will play a key roll later in the movie.

We then cut to a scantily clad woman, Sophie (Tane McClure) who is undressing, while a creepy man watches outside her window. Unbeknown to her/them Mr. Gunter is watching them both through the air duct. Seems the two are playing a little home invasion/rape sex fantasy with Gunther watching on. The next day a young college student, Lori Bancroft (Talia Balsam), arrives to inquire about the apartment; Gunther is quickly (and creepily) enthralled with her and demands that she take the room. A couple of the noisy neighbors, Jessica and Harriet (Barbara Whinnery), comment on how Gunther only rents to young attractive women (“What is his secret?”). He retires to his hidden room and writes (again, another reoccurring scene-namely to introduce his back story) in his diary before trying to feed his captive, Martha (Sally Brown), who in the process passes him a note asking him to kill her. (“I can’t kill you…who would I talk to?”)

The tenants all meet for a little booze and sweets party, which of course is watched by Gunther, who releases a trap door that sends a rat into their room, scaring the girls and turning Gunther on. Later he watches Lori, making noises that she mistakes for another rat. When she goes up to complain, Gunter really tries to lay on the charm, but she declines. We get more voice over back-story in which we discover that his father was a Nazi, who sent his wife and young son to live in South America. Gunther grew up and also became a surgeon, but after discovering his father’s diaries, in which he recounted how he killed patients, Gunter begins to experimenting and eventually killing his own patients. At first the killings were to put severely/terminally ill patients out of their misery, but soon became an addiction, producing in him a god like sensation (“Killing is the only way I feel alive…killing is my heroin, by opiate, my fix.”). That night Gunther interrupts the fantasy lovebirds and kills Hank before he can recreate another fantasy booty-call. Once again Gunter plays roulette-seems after every murder he does this, and if he lives he continues killing.

The next day a strange man, Josef Steiner (Kenneth Robert Shippy), from his past arrives-seems Steiner’s brother was a former patient/victims of Gunther’s and he has spent the past few years tracking him down; trying to convince everyone that Gunther is a murderer. Steiner produces a photo reviling that Gunther’s father, one of the top Nazi experimental surgeons, was executed for war crimes and also produces a photo that shows that Gunther himself was a Nazi Youth.

Gunther is disturbed and begins upping his watching/stalking antics, becoming increasingly violent and brazen in each. He also begins constructing a slew of killing machines and booby traps. That night Jessica (Carol Francis), the soap opera star, brings home a date: some rich douche who starts to put on the moves but can’t complete the deed because of Gunther’s noise-making from the air duct-which again is mistaken for rodents. He attempts to leave but becomes Gunther’s next victim. Steiner returns to interview Gunther’s tenants, namely Lori, who finds him intrusive and refuses to cooperate. Steiner is then lured into Gunther’s room were he falls victim to another booby trap. After one final round of roulette, Gunther falls completely off his rocker: putting on makeup, dressing up as a Nazi while watching Hitler propaganda films, and going on a final killing spree of everyone in the building.

The ending plays out like Halloween (1978) in which Lori (humm…) slowly discovers all the bodies and then must confront Gunther in one long, dragged-out fight/chase involving several twists and surprises-and more nods to Hitchcock and De Palma than you can shake a stick at! As I mentioned earlier, this is a Kinski tour-de-force, outside of his films with Herzog (which are all incredible) this is probably his best performance: subtle, sinister, charming, creepy, sympathetic in the beginning and just plain psychotic towards the end. Even his calm voice-overs added a nice touch to a character that is extremely flawed yet likable. The movie is also a character study, not just of a person going insane, but also of the Serial Killer-something that was being wildly talked about at the time. Crawlspace was released the same year as Manhunter, which dealt with many of the same themes and ushered in the serial killer vs. profiler/forensic trend, which continues to be popular in movies and especially television today. I could also discuss the whole “voyeur” concept and symbolism, but that would be too pretentious don’t you think?

While the body count is high, there is very little gore, as much of the killings occur off screen-yet you do witness the aftermath, as Gunther tends to collect “parts” which he displays in jars. Perhaps he is constructing the perfect person, a la The House that Screamed (used again in May). The film is heavily influenced by Hitchcock and De Palma, even using the composer Pino Donaggio (frequent collaborator of De Palma) to write the score. The film was shot by Sergio Salvati, who is mostly known in horror circles as the DP on all of Fulci’s best films. The movie was directed by David Schmoeller, who also directed Tourist Trap (1979), as well as the classic Puppet Master (1989), and produced by Charles Band, the legendary “hack” producer behind about a million direct-to-DVD titles released through Full Moon.Fans of serial killer films, Hitchcock/De Palma-style thrillers, or Kinski should definitely check this out. It was released on one of those double bill Midnight Movies DVDs from MGM a few years back (with The Attic, another underappreciated film) but is now OOP, but you can get it from Blockbuster On-Line or possibly Netflix.