Klaus Kinski plays Dr. Gunther, an ex-doctor who now runs an apartment building. Dr. Gunther only rents his apartments to attractive women so he can then spy on them via the maze of ductwork throughout the building. He is the son of a Nazi and has many instruments of death and torture and is constantly inventing more as he studies death itself. The attractive girls of course have no shortage of boyfriends (victims) for the doctor to choose from. After every killing he plays Russian roulette to see if he’s meant to go on. When the bullet falls on an empty chamber Dr. Gunther sighs, “So be it” like he’s absolving himself of any blame. He’s giving fate a chance to intervene.

Produced by Charles Band, Crawlspace is a strange juxtaposition of 70’s style dramatic horror and cheesy 80’s horror that doesn’t quite meet its mark. It wants to be disturbing but never quite makes it over the line.

The devices, while not as hard core as the things we saw in Hostel or Saw, are nevertheless cringe-worthy in their simplicity. In spite of this the movie never really delivers, which is a shame because there is a lot of potential here. One of the more chilling parts involves a girl named Martha that the doctor has locked in a cage in his room. Martha can’t talk because he has removed her tongue so she hands him a piece of paper with the words “kill me” written on it. Dr. Gunter looks at her and replies in a perplexed voice that he can’t kill her because then who would he talk to?

Like I said, when the movie is being very 70’s it works. Unfortunately it was made in 1986 so everything that was done right is liberally covered in cheese. The sight of Klaus Kinski giving chase to a woman while lying flat on a trolley zipping though the ducts was one of the most hysterical things I’ve seen in a while.

In spite of its shortcomings and the fact that even at 80 minutes it felt like it was dragging on forever, I’d still recommend this. I’m not sure why. Probably because no matter what Klaus Kinski is fun to watch. Also Pino Donaggio’s soundtrack was excellent, very atmospheric.

Crawlspace gets 6 out of 10 tequila milkshakes.