Customer Reviews

The Attic/Crawlspace (Midnite Movies Double Feature)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

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.

The MGM "Midnite Movies" series keeps its streak going with another entertaining release. Hey, all the movies in this series aren't fabulous, but they've all been at least perfectly watchable, some even much better than that. And it helps that these rescued-from-obscurity movies have mostly all been presented to us in the form of sharp, clean, widescreen prints. This is is the case with both "The Attic" and "Crawlspace", both of which I'd rate as "watchable-plus" in the entertainment department. In other words, they're both ultimately pretty average, but laced with interesting, offbeat moments here and there. Unlike other Midnite Movies releases, however, there isn't much in the value-added department here (meaning extras). Oh, well-- you can't have everything. Still, for the price you can't beat it.

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.

Straight away, I'll say that I bought this combo pack for Crawlspace. The Attic was slow, boring, and extremely predictable; and not predictable in the good way---like you know that Madman Marz will show up in the last frame. And, based on what I've read here, the "surprise" ending has pretty much been covered in detail. The woman's father was alot more amusing as the sour, black-hearted old guy in Frogs. He played pretty much the same role here, but it was just creepy. And what exactly IS the purpose of having animals mistreated or worse in some movies? Why did that have to put that poor monkey in this bad trip of a movie? Absolutely pointless, other than in the interest of extreme poor taste. Uggh.

But, on the other hand, Crawlspace is a hoot. Klaus Kinski has passed on now, but were I a movie maker, I would put him in everything. I would write roles just to include him. In Crawlspace, he places a deranged doctor with a vague Nazi background, and I thought it was a scream the way the movie itself almost occured from his sympathetic point of view. He narrates the tale with fragmented journal entries, often read aloud to the tongueless captive he keeps in the cage in his attic. He has decided that he's become addicted to killing, and sets out to explore his addiction methodically.

The movie starts off with a blonde in red underwear preening herself in a mirror. But don't get too excited; though it should be cool, it just, somehow, isn't. Klaus, Dr. Karl Gunther, is watching through a crawlspace in the bedroom wall. (He owns the apartment building, and has free run.) Anyway, there's this dork staring through the outside window. He gets into the apartment, grabs the girl and shoots off with a mouthful of idiotic dialogue. But don't worry; the good Dr. Gunther, madcap that he is, nails this guy about twenty minutes later. Gunther pretty much fills his day with spying, chumming around with rats, playing Russian roulette, smearing lipstick over the bottom half of his face, and killing his female tennants with improvised traps. I know, it sounds pretty stupid, and it is, but Klaus comes through in trademark style, baby. That guy kills me. He's got three jars of solution sitting around, one with a tongue, another with eyeballs and another with a ring finger, gruesome trophies, sure, but noboy else could do it with Klaus' royal panache. And wait until you see that chair of his.

However, all things must come to an end, and the good doctor ends up taking in the one tennant that beats him at his own game. But, he seems pretty lighthearted even about his own demise, so, I guess in a way, you can call it a happy ending.

Here is another one of those DVD double features that package two films together, usually plodding clunker type films, for the price of one. "The Attic" resides on side one of the disc, an effective little piece of horror that many people have probably never heard about. I know I hadn't heard anything about it before seeing it here. Made in 1979 and starring Carrie Snodgrass and an elderly Ray Milland, "The Attic" is the type of movie that moves slowly but surely to its horrific conclusion. Snodgrass plays Louise, a dowdy librarian recently forced to retire after she went nuts between the stacks. Poor, lonely Louise lacks a man in her life, although at one point in her life she did have a suitor attempting to win her heart. That was twenty years ago, and ever since those halcyon days of puppy love, Louise has lived with her domineering, nosy father Wendell. She is indifferent to her father's constant harping, but Louise grudgingly performs the tasks demanded of her due to a combination of guilt and mental instability. Of course, she still fantasizes about dispatching Wendell any chance she gets but ultimately never carries through with any of her plans. At least Louise has a few friends at the library along with her dreams about finding her lost love and eventually taking an overseas trip. With her forced retirement on the horizon, perhaps Louise will finally pull everything together and live the type of life she craves. Then again, maybe not. Events move rapidly to an explosive series of revelations after Louise buys a pet monkey and discovers her father has a few nasty little secrets of his own, secrets that have a direct bearing on his daughter's condition.

"The Attic" may not be a well-known film, but it should receive some positive recognition from horror aficionados. Carrie Snodgrass does a wonderful job portraying the fragile Louise. Nearly every one of this actress's scenes shows how close her character is to suffering a complete mental collapse. Snodgrass plays Louise as though the character is a child stuck in a grown woman's body, and her efforts at portraying this character succeed wildly. Louise may have a lot of personal problems, but these difficulties do not prevent her from helping out people that show her kindness or doing things against character on occasion. You really get the sense that this is a woman who wants out of her miserable existence because her zest for life refuses to die. Wendell is the one person who constantly attempts to break Louise down, and as played by Ray Milland this character consistently achieves loathsome proportions, especially when Wendell decides to deal with Louise's pet monkey simply because she didn't get rid of the animal. When Wendell's fate finally arrives, you will have a tough time feeling any sympathy for him.

"Crawlspace," a seedy little film arriving on the scene in 1980 is the second film on this disc. Starring the always entertaining Klaus Kinski, this movie is the story of a young college student who discovers her new digs at a creepy boarding house border on the insane. Clocking in at a brief seventy-six minutes, "Crawlspace" really isn't that great of a movie. The plot finds Kinski playing Doctor Karl Gunther, the son of a doctor who did awful experiments for the Third Reich. After leaving a hospital after a spate of strange deaths put him under a cloud of suspicion, the good doctor bought an apartment building. Now Gunther is free to perform his own grisly experiments in the attic of the dwelling he owns. When he isn't writing nutty comments in his diary, he roams through the ventilation system of the building, spying on all of the female tenants and their various activities. Gunther's newest renter soon learns that weird things are going on in the building, especially after receiving a visit from the persistent son of one of Gunther's hospital victims. Everything comes to a head when the doctor finally does a tailspin into insanity and attempts to kill his new boarder. A chase scene through the building involves several clever little devices and traps Gunther rigged up in the ventilation system.

If you like Klaus Kinski, and I know that I do, you will like "Crawlspace." Sure, a good portion of the film drags like a wet noodle, but not when Klaus is onscreen. Even when slumming through a role like this Kinski manages to run rings around any of the other actors in the film. His creepy gaze, that sinister smile, and just the ominous atmosphere wafting off the guy is enough to make this picture worthwhile. Moreover, you get to see him put on makeup in the throes of his character's "insanity." This scene alone is worth the price of the film. Perhaps Klaus Kinski really was as insane in real life as he was in his movie roles. If so, "Crawlspace" is Kinski at his nutty best.

The DVD is typical for these types of double feature presentations: you get a minimum of extras but a good picture transfer. Only "Crawlspace" comes with a trailer, though. "The Attic" and "Crawlspace," while not the best entries in the horror genre, definitely provide several hours of amusing entertainment. These two movies won't satisfy hard-core gorehounds by any means, but they are horror movies of a rather harmless sort well worth watching.

"The Attic" isn't your typical horror movie. In fact, there is very little horror in the movie. It is more of a disturbing, psychological thriller. The film revolves around a librarian named Louise. After 19 years at the same library in Wichita, Kansas, Louise has been laid off due to several "incidents" at work. Her replacement is a recent college grad named Emily. The two realize that they have quite a bit in common. Over the course of the film, the two women develop a friendship that results in a very genuine, selfless act. On the darker side of things, Louise lives with her controlling, yet disabled, father. He insults her routinely and spies on her. All the while, Louise still mourns for her finace, who disappeared on her wedding day 19 years prior. As a kind gesture, one day Emily gives Louise a pet monkey as a gift. Her father absolutely hates the little monkey (probably just as much as he hated Louise's fiance). This leads to a tragic end in the attic... What can I say about this movie? Well, it reminds me a lot of the movie "The Housekeeper" (aka "A Judgement in Stone"). We are introduced to an aging, repressed woman who cannot stand up to her mean parent. It's one thing to have respect for the person who helped give you life, but when that person verbally abuses you your entire life, then it is time to stand up for yourself. That ends up being the ultimate moral message in this tale. Overall, I would say that if you are a blood and guts horror fan, this film may not be for you. If you are more interested in psychological horror, then please add this gem into your collection...

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.

The Attic is a movie that I have had on video for years and enjoy watching it every once in a while. Even thought the movie does not have a lot of visual shock, there are a few tense moments. Basically, Carrie Snodgrass is a spinster librarian dominated by her sadistic father, Ray Milland. The movie is well worth the last 10 minutes or so and if you enjoy suspenseful twisted end to a movie, then this one is for you.

Crawlspace is where Klaus Kinski is the son of a Nazi war criminal and like his father has the desire to kill. Basically, he rents rooms to women and spies on them from the ventilator shaft (i.e., crawlspace). There is not a lot of blood and gore compared to other movies of the 80's. The movie should be watched just to see what is kept in the lab.

One of the all-time great MIDNITE MOVIES combos, THE ATTIC / CRAWLSPACE is a must for the true collector! In THE ATTIC, Carrie Snodgress (THE FURY) stars as Louise Elmore, a lonely librarian who must care for her disabled (and extremely mean) father (Ray Milland from THE PREMATURE BURIAL, X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES, FROGS). Louise has been depressed ever since her fiance disappeared 19 years earlier. Along the way, she has become increasingly desperate and delusional. Unfortunately, things don't improve for Louise. In fact, she's about to discover secrets that will unravel her fragile mind completely! In CRAWLSPACE, Klaus Kinski (NOSFERATU, VENOM) plays an unhinged landlord who spends his ample free time creeping through his apartment building's massive ductwork, spying on potential victims. You see, his father was a nazi war criminal and junior has definitely taken up dad's homicidal handiwork! Did I tell you that his apartment is a torture chamber, loaded w/ trinkets like lethal boobytraps, a mute gal in a cage, and eyeballs (and the poor captive's tongue) in a jar? Yep, this man knows how to party! Kinski is as marvelous in his role as his tenants are clueless! This one's a creeper-keeper...