The Attic/Crawlspace (1986)

A double dose of delirium awaits you on this demented DVD! Taking her Diary of a Mad Housewife acclaim to effective extremes, Carrie Snodgress is disturbingly convincing in The Attic (1980), a morbid slice of gothic pie in which she plays a dowdy librarian, obsessively grieving 19 years after the disappearance of her picture-perfect boyfriend. This prolonged sadness is aggravated by her apparently disabled father (Ray Milland), who dominates her life with such abusive bitterness that she descends even deeper into tortured desperation. What does she discover in the attic? We're not telling, but suffice it to say Daddy's evil goes beyond expectations! Directed with earnest compassion for its damaged wallflower, The Attic is wretched psychodrama at its most bizarre.

On the flipside, Crawlspace (1986) is grade-Z pulp for those who take perverse delight in the derangement of Klaus Kinski, here playing a suicidal heir to the Third Reich, continuing his Nazi reign of terror as the voyeuristic landlord in a building full of unsuspecting young females. Drawing on his alleged hatred for Kinski (by all accounts it was mutual), director David Schmoeller puts Kinski through the paces (and claustrophobic spaces), turning this nudity-spiced schlockfest into a lecherous tour of depravity. With a score by Italian composer Pino Donaggio, Crawlspace is surely someone's guilty pleasure. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Five Stars for The Attic

Well done suspense movie. The story of a spinster librarian & her domineering, tyrannical father. Well done, I rather enjoyed this film. April 29, 2008

Klaus Kinski is superb as a guy playing the elderly version of Marilyn Manson!

Got a chance to catch part of "Crawlspace" recently on Direct TV. Man, I forgot how creepy Kinski really was in this flick! I immediately thought, "Holy cow! IT'S THE ELDERLY VERSION OF MARYLIN MANSON!! However, I think Marilyn is probably a perfect gentleman in reality compared to Kinski's character of Gunther. He was not only creepy, but very, very sick-minded. What I found particularly disturbing, and sad, was that poor young woman locked in a cage and being starved to death! This, I felt, is the type of scene where one, in their right mind anyway, can not really see this film as mere entertainment. (Anyone who views this as joyful entertainment needs to have their head examined, IMHO). Especially is this true when one realizes that horrible stuff like this has actually happened! (It makes me glad to know the real and satisfying reason why God has allowed such things to happen. If I didn't, I'd probably be an athiest today. A discussion for another time, though).

At any rate, this film is just worth it to see Kinski's performance, which is why I give "Crawlspace" four stars. April 21, 2007

If these movies come on the late night double feature, it is definitely for a reason.

Both of these movies are boring and forgettable. I thought Klaus Kinski was absoluted disgusting in his role as that peeping-tom freak, so I guess he was good for that part, but I still did not like either of these movies because they were so boring. I thought the storylines were completely uncompelling and poorly executed. If one is better than the other, Crawlspace would be the better of the two, but that is not saying much, but at least it saves this DVD from getting zero stars, which is pretty close to what it deserves. If you are having trouble sleeping, put this DVD in, and your insomnia will be cured. December 21, 2006

THE ATTIC

I GOT THIS MOVIE BECAUSE I THOUGHT I SAW IT WHEN I WAS YOUNGER.THE MOVIE IS OLD,SLOW GOING FOR MOST OF THE MOVIE.I GUESS IF YOU WHAT TO SEE HOW UNBELIEVABLY BAD A FATHER CAN BE TO A DAUGHTER,YOU'LL WHAT TO SEE IT.IT HAD SOME INTERSTING PARTS.I GUESS YOU COULD SAY IT HAD A STUNNING ENDING.IF YOU CAN GET IT CHEAP, IT'S WORTH A LOOK. August 21, 2006

THE ATTIC = 2.5 stars / CRAWLSPACE = 3 stars

I love these 2-for-1 sets that MGM puts out. Of course, it's usually a mixed bag, and this one is no exception.
First, there's THE ATTIC: Slow, corny, and really rather predictable. Snodgress and Milland are fun to watch, but the story really is unbelievable, and the whole thing plays like a made-for-TV movie.
The real reason for my review is CRAWLSPACE, which is a lot of fun if you love Klaus Kinski, as I do. It's a pity that CRAWLSPACE isn't a little better, because Kinski is at his best here as a creepo landlord who only rents the rooms in his house to nubile young women (of course). Through voice-overs as he writes in his journal, it is revealed that he is the son of a Nazi doctor who was tried and executed for his role in the development of Nazi torture devices. Klaus has carried on his father's "work", first in Argentina, and now in the United States. He has made a hobby of designing various bizarre contraptions which he uses to kill people who get on his nerves; no knives for our Klaus... too unoriginal! Keeping him company is a woman in a cage, whose tongue he has cut out; needless to say, she's none too thrilled with her lot in life, though she seems to enjoy befriending the cockroaches that wander through. When he's not making weird weapons or reading his journal to his tongueless girlfriend, he's spying on his pretty young tenants from the... you guessed it! The CRAWLSPACE!!! Mwah-ha-haaaa!!!
When Klaus gets a new tenant, who turns out be our heroine, something sets him off the deep end (well, even further off the deep end) and he ends up chasing her with lipstick and mascara smeared incongruously all over his not-very-attractive mug.
Though I admit guiltlessly to enjoying this piece of crap, I must say that it's wildly uneven. In the scenes where Klaus sits alone in his room, hashing over the depravity in his past and contemplating the perpetration of further depravities, the film is nothing short of riveting. Kinski knows how to scare you almost without doing anything. His mannerisms suggest a sad, even kind man, but beneath that deceitful facade is a ravening maniac. It's disturbing!
But then, when we're in the crawlspace, leering at young ladies disrobing in front of open windows (which I find irritatingly stupid), the film crosses over into pure schlock territory (but still fun). There are some embarrassing dialogue scenes, and with the exception of Kinski, the characters are about as memorable and compelling as melted ice cream. But the aforementioned scenes of Kinski alone, combind with the admittedly effective ending, and the wonderful score by the great Pino Donaggio (not to mention some pretty good photography) make this one pretty easy to swallow. Overall, it's a bit frustrating, because it could've been better, but for Kinski fans, and fans of sleaze in general, it's essential. July 9, 2005

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