Rating: 
Summary: A Girl And Her Monkey
Review: A woman for no apparent reason begins walking up a flight of blood-red carpetted stairs, a flashlight in hand. She sees, at the top of the stairs, that a door is left open. Strange. She investigates. To her intrusively horrific disbelief, in this eerily illuminated room, Nazi war photos adorn the walls to one side, while other side is decorated with scores of caged rats, a kitten, and a caged mute woman staring out passionately. Enter Klaus Kinski as Dr. Karl Gunther. "She can't talk", calmly mutters Gunther, to the ill-fated intruder, "I cut off her tongue...what a shame, I really liked you", before unemotionally murdering the intruder in a most unusual way. Fade to the kitchen where Gunther, slicing open a finger and coating a single bullet with his blood, proceeds to load the bullet in a gun, spins the cylinder,places the barrel to his temple, and pulls the trigger. Nothing... "So be it." As if to justify what he has done...and what he is about to do. Crawlspace is one of those rare lost treasures of the horror genre that has never really gotten it's due. Perhaps because it was a relatively low-budgeted affair. Perhaps because it did not get much publicity. Who is to say? It is, without any doubt, however, a triumph as a well written, well directed, and more importantly amazingly acted study of a man whose lust for voyeurism and blood consumed him totally beyond the brink of any semblance of sanity. Kinski simply astounds. Written and directed by David Schmoeller, the movie boasts an outstanding soundtrack by the famed Pino Donaggio. And although Mr. Schmoeller personally and professioally hated Kinski enough to thoroughly trash him in the 9-minute (and outrageously overpriced) documentary, "Please Kill Mr. Kinski", it is clear the two of them (Schmoeller and Kinski) got the most out of each other's talents. Schmoeller, by far, got the better of the deal.
Dr. Karl Gunther has recently been uncovered by Nazi-hunter Joseph Steiner who has spent the last 3 years locating Gunther who fled Argentina where, under his care, 67 patients of seemingly good health died under "mysterious circumstances", to which Gunther refers to as "euthanasia". That Steiner interrupted the day-to-day routine of Dr. Gunther's "behavioral studies" of the gorgeous tenants of an apartment building he owns; was a most certain distraction to Gunther to be dealt with, as only he knew how. Murder most heinous and cruel. It is discovered that Dr. Karl Gunther's own father was a Nazi war criminal who also had a passion for mercy killing. Mostly women and children. Gunther's writings in his personal journal reflect his musings over the ironic similarities between father and son. Dr. Karl Gunther has an unusual way of spying on his lovelies. The ductwork, which provides heat, is conveniently located near the ceiling and works quite well as a "crawlspace" in which Gunther can merrily go about his business of studying his tenants in various states of dress and undress. Enough cannot be said of this movie. There are few dull moments. A lot of action and a lot of Kinski, the genius who once again proves that his appearance in a film is reason alone to see it. Kinski's supporting cast members are nowhere near the caliber of actor(s) as he. But then who is? Talia Balsam, Barbara Whinnery, Carol Frances, and Tane' provide a pleasant visual distraction while Sally Brown as the pathetic and tragic Martha is very convincing as the wretched, tortured soul she portrays in her horrifically tragic confined silence. After watching Kinski portray yet another madman, one who terrorizes his tenants in the ductwork using odd tap tap tapping sounds, and rats aplenty, those of you who live in apartments after viewing this movie will find yourselves gazing at the vents and ductwork, wondering if anyone is behind there watching, leering, and plotting... in the "Crawlspace". "So be it".
Rating: 
Summary: There's more to this movie than meets the eye!
Review: A woman for no apparent reason begins walking up a flight of blood-red carpetted stairs, a flashlight in hand. She sees, at the top of the stairs, that a door is left open. Strange. She investigates. To her intrusively horrific disbelief, in this eerily illuminated room, Nazi war photos adorn the walls to one side, while other side is decorated with scores of caged rats, a kitten, and a caged mute woman staring out passionately. Enter Klaus Kinski as Dr. Karl Gunther. "She can't talk", calmly mutters Gunther, to the ill-fated intruder, "I cut off her tongue...what a shame, I really liked you", before unemotionally murdering the intruder in a most unusual way. Fade to the kitchen where Gunther, slicing open a finger and coating a single bullet with his blood, proceeds to load the bullet in a gun, spins the cylinder,places the barrel to his temple, and pulls the trigger. Nothing... "So be it." As if to justify what he has done...and what he is about to do. Crawlspace is one of those rare lost treasures of the horror genre that has never really gotten it's due. Perhaps because it was a relatively low-budgeted affair. Perhaps because it did not get much publicity. Who is to say? It is, without any doubt, however, a triumph as a well written, well directed, and more importantly amazingly acted study of a man whose lust for voyeurism and blood consumed him totally beyond the brink of any semblance of sanity. Kinski simply astounds. Written and directed by David Schmoeller, the movie boasts an outstanding soundtrack by the famed Pino Donaggio. And although Mr. Schmoeller personally and professioally hated Kinski enough to thoroughly trash him in the 9-minute (and outrageously overpriced) documentary, "Please Kill Mr. Kinski", it is clear the two of them (Schmoeller and Kinski) got the most out of each other's talents. Schmoeller, by far, got the better of the deal.
Dr. Karl Gunther has recently been uncovered by Nazi-hunter Joseph Steiner who has spent the last 3 years locating Gunther who fled Argentina where, under his care, 67 patients of seemingly good health died under "mysterious circumstances", to which Gunther refers to as "euthanasia". That Steiner interrupted the day-to-day routine of Dr. Gunther's "behavioral studies" of the gorgeous tenants of an apartment building he owns; was a most certain distraction to Gunther to be dealt with, as only he knew how. Murder most heinous and cruel. It is discovered that Dr. Karl Gunther's own father was a Nazi war criminal who also had a passion for mercy killing. Mostly women and children. Gunther's writings in his personal journal reflect his musings over the ironic similarities between father and son. Dr. Karl Gunther has an unusual way of spying on his lovelies. The ductwork, which provides heat, is conveniently located near the ceiling and works quite well as a "crawlspace" in which Gunther can merrily go about his business of studying his tenants in various states of dress and undress. Enough cannot be said of this movie. There are few dull moments. A lot of action and a lot of Kinski, the genius who once again proves that his appearance in a film is reason alone to see it. Kinski's supporting cast members are nowhere near the caliber of actor(s) as he. But then who is? Talia Balsam, Barbara Whinnery, Carol Frances, and Tane' provide a pleasant visual distraction while Sally Brown as the pathetic and tragic Martha is very convincing as the wretched, tortured soul she portrays in her horrifically tragic confined silence. After watching Kinski portray yet another madman, one who terrorizes his tenants in the ductwork using odd tap tap tapping sounds, and rats aplenty, those of you who live in apartments after viewing this movie will find yourselves gazing at the vents and ductwork, wondering if anyone is behind there watching, leering, and plotting... in the "Crawlspace". "So be it".
Rating:
Summary: Tasty Stuff
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Tasty Stuff
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: A gruesome twosome...
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Don't read "A Girl and Her Monkey" by Viewer from New York!
Review: Not if you want the entire plot to "The Attic" given away. She not only tells you what Carrie finds in the attic, but that her father is the one who killed her husband. Way to go, NY.
Rating:
Summary: Okay, baby, let's get started
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Girl And Her Monkey
Review: THE ATTIC is a complete throw back to southern gothic cinema. It really is very reminiscent of things like SISTER SISTER, and HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, but it veers strangely into the territory of stuff like THE LITTLE FOXES and FRIED GREEN TOMATOES. Carrie Snodgrass plays a drunken southern woman librarian who is mentally disturbed. Her life is ruled by her evil Father who sits in his wheelchair acting like an insane male Bette Davis. She gets laid off from the library because she (in some kind of southern woman crazy fit) tries to burn a bunch of books one night at work cuz she feels they are opprosing her life.
In an unexpected turn she becomes close friends with the woman who is to replace her. They spend a lot of time with each and we learn that the eternally frazzled Carrie Snodgrass's character once had a man. But he never showed up for the wedding. So she has spent 20 years waiting for him to come home.
Her friend feels bad for her so she buys her a monkey. Yes, a chimpanzee. Which her father hates and which she adores.
She dresses her chimp in a sailor suit and they have lots of fun together. Eventually the chimp dissapeers and crazy Carrie is devastated.
Then one day on an outing in the park she accidentally kills her father and runs home to look in the attic for money. Well of course she finds the corpse of her monkey as well as her long lost husband who her father killed twenty years ago.
This movie is just plain wierd but I love it.
The second feature CRAWLSPACE I also enjoyed. But how can one not enjoy Klaus Kinski acting all twisted and spying on women.
This is a great buy and a very fun disc.
Rating:
Summary: Small Spaces
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: More Midnite Madness
Review: 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.
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