Crawlspace (made for tv 1972)

[lester1/2jr]

Not quite great but really pretty close.

I don't know what happened to made for tv movies. The only ones I can think of are the ones on Lifetime and those Hallmark things they have, neither of which I would ever watch. I saw a good british one a while ago. I guess Sci Fi is sort of carrying the torch for them, but those are too sciency for me.

A weird guy befriends two lonely old people out in the sticks somewhere. Unbeknownst to them he is living in their crawlspace. They don't have much going on so they are like what the hell. Their relationship progresses and they become like family even though he still lives in the crawlspace, but the small town a***oles don't take kindly to him (he goes out at night) and him being a weirdo he can't really deal with it too well. So, as it turns out a stranger living in your crawlspace isn't as cool as you would think.

The lead guy is awesome and very convincing. The emotional attachment the woman feels for him, even though he is a large strange man who broke into and is living in her crawlspace, is great and the whole scenerio is easily a metaphor for failure to launch sons and moms, the  risks and rewards of charity, etc. Also: crawlspace crawlspace crawlspace crawlspace

If I had one criticism its that not only are the townsfolk really stereotypical townsfolk, the weirdy is a stereotypical weirdy. It feels just a tad dumbed down here. Granted, at 74 minutes there is not much room for subtlety.

Also, this is the second movie I've seen this week where the prodigal son type character is really really good at chopping wood and chops the crap out of it splitting great elephantine logs in one bunyon esque smash with steam coming out of his ears due to his lifes travails. Otherwise useless guys who couldn't make it in the real world are good for something, just make sure they put the axe back afterwords. got it.

The reproduction quality is not great thugh not as bad as the youtube version below. It looks probably alot like it looked on tv in 1972. There are extras or anything though there is the funky cover design.

4.5/5 I really liked it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwXAcsXSUNQ&feature=related
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^clip. you can watch the whole thing on youtube but it has an annoying chirping sound the whole time.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

The lead actor in Crawlspace was none other than Klaus Kinski, father of actress Nastassia who played alongside Malcolm McDowall in the 1980 remake of Cat People.

Kinski also played in a Euro horror film in the early 70's called Creature With The Blue Hand and he's done a myriad of other films before his passing some time ago.

I too remember Crawlspace, and have seen it a few times.

And, it may be the possible influence on another similar and good film of that time called Bad Ronald. 

Be it these movies, or the somewhat dated Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, there's no question that the 70's ruled when it came to TV horror movies (or any kind of movie at all.)

[lester1/2jr]

different Crawlspace. That one was from 86.

[Paquita]

I've seen both Crawlspaces and I like Klaus Kinski's better.  Ew! I just said I liked Klaus Kinski's crawlspace!

The '72 one made me sad.  I don't like seeing old people sad.  And yeah, the stereotypical townsfolk are just irritating.  I would prefer that they all live happily ever after.

[lester1/2jr]

I liked them both. The 72 one was relatively depressing. Its been a while since I saw the 86 Crawlspace but I remember a scene where a girl with 80's hair was playing a really cheesy ballad at a piano? It was kind of like a Masters of Horror episode or Creepshow or something. short, stylized.