The Attic/Crawlspace (Midnite Movies Double Feature)

Amazon.com

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

Description

The Attic: Daddy's mad... stark-raving mad! Angry and abusive Wendell (Oscar winner Ray Milland) has enslaved his own daughter Louise (Carrie Snodgress) for 15 years, forcing her to care for him and clean every room in his house... except for one. Will Louise keep slaving, not knowing why she has no life of her own? Or will she dare to look in the attic... where she'll find the "Daddy" of all shockers?

Crawlspace: Renter BEWARE! Psychotic landlord Karl Gunther (Klaus Kinski) wants to charge you an arm and a leg for the privilege of tenancy! Spying on his female renters from an elaborate network of crawlspaces, Gunther lures new victims into his torture chamber with an incessant "tap, tap, tap!" Can a new prospective renter stop his apartment building's rapid turnover rate... or will Gunther continue to make a killing?!?

Customer Reviews:

Klaus Kinski is superb as a guy playing the elderly version of Marilyn Manson!.......2007-04-21

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.

If these movies come on the late night double feature, it is definitely for a reason........2006-12-22

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.

THE ATTIC.......2006-08-22

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.

THE ATTIC = 2.5 stars / CRAWLSPACE = 3 stars.......2005-07-09

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.

A gruesome twosome..........2004-04-02

MGM releases yet another double dose of the macabre in their 'Midnight Movie Madness' series with The Attic (1979) and Crawlspace (1986).

The Attic stars Carrie Snodgrass as Louise, a librarian and your classic 'old maid' stuck caring for her domineering and verbally abusive father (Ray Milland) who is confined to a wheelchair. Louise was left at the altar 19 years previous, due to the disappearance of her fiancé and has been waiting for his return ever since. The time spent living with her father has taken its' toll, and basically squeezed almost all of the spirit out of the woman. The maddening, soul crushing boredom of toiling away in a rather stale library while dreams of far away places danced in her head, and then having to go home and deal with the constant verbal lashings of her father, has manifested itself in strange fantasies with Louise humiliating or eliminating her father in various ways. She does struggle to exert herself, but always seems to be on the short end of the stick, at least when it comes to her father. What happens when she is finally pushed over the edge? Watch and see...

The Attic was quite slow and some might even say tedious, but I rather enjoyed it. The plot seemed to drift here and there at times, but it did find its' way, providing a rather predictable, but satisfying ending. The build up crawls along at a snail's pace, allowing for some viewers to grow wary, but I felt the tension within the plot and I found myself unable to turn away. It was funny, but due to the title, I kind of expected something with more of a horror element, but instead found myself treated to a dusty little gem. I thought Ray Milland was pretty good as the tyrannical, father confined to a wheelchair, spying and berating his daughter at every chance. I found myself wanting to tell him off a number of times, as my dislike for the character grew. If you're looking for scenes of blood soaked violence in this movie, you're going to be disappointed.

Crawlspace (1986) stars Klaus Kinski as Karl Gunther, former doctor and now owner of an apartment house. His hobbies include playing Russian roulette, writing his memoirs, conversing with the caged woman in the attic who's tongue he removed (talk about your one sided conversations), rats, collecting body parts, and sliding around the crawlspaces in his building spying on his comely female tenants in various activities and states of undress. The film also stars Talia Balsam as Lori, as student who has just moved in the building, but will soon find the place to be not quite the deal she first thought. I can see the ad for renting the apartment now... 2nd & 3rd floor units. Newly renovated & deleaded. Stove & refrigerator included. Front/rear balconies. Section 8 approved. First & last due at time of rental. Nice quiet area. Resident psycho included. Okay, maybe that last part was left out...

As Lori moves in, she hears strange noises coming from the vents by the ceiling. What could they be? Mice? The idea of Klaus Kinski creeping around, peeping through vents certainly gave me the willies. He's such an ugly little man, and I have to wonder how much of his performance was acting and how much wasn't...His perversions seems to really begin to bloom when his new tenant moves in, driving him to extreme measures to satisfy his self proclaimed addiction to all things once alive but not anymore.

Crawlspace, contrary to The Attic, moves along fairly quickly, and also has a fair amount of blood and some pretty gruesome murders. Most aren't shown, except for small details, leaving the rest to the viewer's imagination. The ending, while definitely final, almost seemed anti-climatic to the rest of the film, but if one looks a bit more closely, you will understand how it ties together, given the character played by Kinski. He's such an oddball in this film, and I loved how most of the other characters overlooked that, especially since they were women, and most women I know have better perceptive skills than I do...oh well...he also seemed to slip into his full blown dementia pretty quickly, but then again, I'm no doctor, so what do I know?

Both films look really great, and are presented in wide screen format. I've found that MGM has consistently done a fine job in releasing their films, even the more dubious ones, providing very good quality. No real special features, except for a trailer for Crawlspace, but that's all right. I still feel like I got pretty good bargain with two watchable films at a decent price.

Cookieman108

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