CRAWLSPACE

There was a great moment in SOUTH PARK: THE MOVIE in which Kyle, Stan and Cartman search for a certain word on the Internet, only to come across “Sick German Fetish Videos” (starring Cartman's mom of course).  After viewing the video and vomiting, Cartman screams out, “Damn, why are German people so sick?!”  Well, I didn’t vomit (I’ve seen worse), but I did scream out the same question after seeing the 1986 flick CRAWLSPACE.  The movie features a sick German protagonist doing some nasty things.  And while the level of sickness won’t match a “Hostel” or a Takashi Miike film, it’s still adequately disturbing to those who like their horror movies on the dark side. 

CRAWLSPACE features everyone’s favorite freaky German, Klaus Kinski as Doctor Karl Gunther.  Kinski is best known as the star of numerous Werner Herzog film’s, not the least of which is the excellent re-telling of NOSFERATU in the late 70s.  In this film, he portrays a very naughty landlord – a man who owns a home near a university and only rents it out to nubile young females.  As the females shower, change, bring back dates, etc, Kinski spies on them through his “crawlspace,” a series of ducts constructed to fit him as he weaves his way through the home.

Pretty early on, we discover that the father of Kinski’s character was, in fact, a Nazi.  A Nazi whose memoirs inspire Kinski to heights of further depravity.  As the movie continues, we see a man infected by his father’s past and who learns to love to kill and torture.  And it’s not just his father’s stuff, he spends some of his time watching Nazi documentaries and goose-stepping in his attic.  Interestingly, in reality Kinski himself was a soldier for Germany in World War II and spent much of that war as a POW in a British camp.>

Gradually Kinski starts to take out some of his tenants and their dates – after playing with them by releasing rats into their rooms (there are a lot of rats in this movie – a lot).   The plot develops further when two people start to take an interest in Kinski’s extra-curricular activities.  One is a new tenant, played Talia Balsam.  The other is a Nazi hunter named Josef Steiner (Kenneth Shippy) who pegged Kinski not only as the son of a Nazi, but as an ex-doctor from Argentina whose patients had an unusually high fatality rate.

None of what I’ve discussed is particularly disturbing, admittedly.  But I haven’t described the scenes in Kinski’s study.  The study in which he keeps a woman locked in a cage.  A mute woman, because he had her tongue cut out (and placed in a jar on his mantle, along with other body parts from various victims).  At one point his prisoner passes him a note that says “kill me,” but Kinski quietly responds, “I can’t kill you, who would I talk to then?”  I don’t know why, but that gave me the shivers.  As did the scenes in which Kinski plays Russian roulette on himself, after coating the single bullet in his own blood.

By now you’ve realized this isn’t your typical horror movie.  You know the killer from the opening scene, there isn’t much in the way of surprise, and the structure doesn’t follow the average horror movie.  And some of the disturbing elements do come across as silly and over-dramatic.  But dammit, some of it is just damn freaky.  We’re essentially watching 80 minutes of a sick, sick man explore the depravities of his soul. 

It’s hard for me to recommend the movie as highly as I’d like since it’s not a particularly entertaining film.  But Kinski’s performance makes it a highly watchable one, and you have to give it points for being original.  CRAWLSPACE is nowhere near is nasty as the latest torture-flicks out there, but it will still leave a dank taste in your mouth, and if that’s your cup of tea it’s well worth a look.

RATING: ** and a half (out of four)

Comments

[Joshua]

Ah well, i watched this movie now 10 mintues ago and i could say that this is really one of the scarriest movies ive watched so far.
Klaus Kinski is the god of psychoterror.
I recommend that movie only for children over 15 years, im just getting 15 in 1 week, but ive seen MANY many horror movies and i can say that this was one of the hardest.
If youre not VERY sure, that youre
made for this kind of movies, DONT WATCH it.. you will never want to taste a horro movie again.

(sry about my bad english, im just a stupid 15 years old german :X)

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[Albuquerque Personal Injury Attorney]

I saw the movie you were talking about and as usual being South Park it was hilarious.