Crawlspace (1986)
Rating: ****
Starring:
Klaus Kinski, Talia Balsam and Barbara Whinnery
From director Charles Band, right before he went haywire on creating creepy little critters for Direct-To-Video movies, a fair, creative but very underrated hidden gem of a slasher.
Klaus Kinski is Karl Gunther, a superintendent of an apartment complex where he only admits beautiful girls. Unknown to them, the man is also a Neo-Nazi, the son of a German surgeon, finding excitement from the mutilations, murders and scares he commits. He's willing to dispose anyone who gets in the way of his sick hobby as well as tests his torture devices on whoever's unfortunate enough to encounter his maniacal side.
As more and more victims fall to his blade, he finally snaps one night and concludes that he'll always be his own Judge, Jury and Executioner, thus resulting to a killing spree. It's up to the new occupant, Lori Brancoft, and a surgically muted Martha White, a prisoner he kept alive for God knows how long, to stop him before he ends them all.
Perhaps one (and often argued) reason why this film is so underrated is that despite being labeled a "slasher",
Crawlspace (1986) barely touched the red stuff at all. Most of the murders committed by our psycho were done offscreen and often suggested through jarred body parts. Though some will find these simplified killings as a cheat and shows nothing more than the minimal budget of the movie, I personally don't mind since the narrative's worth the watch and it does has its share of squeamish moments.
Like
Maniac (1980) or
Evilspeak (1981), the first half of the film concentrates on our villain as a character, exploring his fascination for evil and even seemingly fighting his own inner demons, attempting to end all of his murders and torments by playing a round of Russian Roulette after committing a murder. If the empty chamber clicks, he'll just sighs "So be it" and continues to live a day until his next slaying. It's unusually contrasting as later, he would be documenting his experiences with much interest and intrigue.
The movie only becomes a slasher in its second half when finally he loses all sense of restraint and morals; it is here that it shifts to your usual conventions, with our final girls trying to outrun and survive the monster, now hellbent on murder. Like the last act of a
Friday the 13th sequel, Karl even have the bodies of his previous victims strewn all over the building in an attempt to deter escape or scare back, resulting to quite an exhilarating last act with a cathartic final line.
"Hidden Gem" befits this film.
Crawlspace (1986) is not your usual slasher, yes, but it's definitely worth the look. It succeeds on making an impact in terms of style, aura, a good acting cast of interesting characters (Kinski the most) and even some sense of dread. Its low-budget obviously shows no hindrance on making this film as entertaining and captivating as possible, a direction I clearly admire from this title. If only Charles Band tries harder nowadays...
Bodycount:
1 female gets a projected spear through the chest
1 male had his eyes gouged offscreen
1 male killed offscreen, finger seen
1 male gets a projected spear into his arse
1 female found with a spiked jaw piece impaling her neck
1 female found killed and nailed to the door
1 female found dead
1 male shot
Total: 8
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