THE
ATTIC (1979)/CRAWLSPACE (1986)Directors: George Edwards, David Schmoeller
MGM
THE
ATTIC (1979)/CRAWLSPACE (1986)For this "Midnite Movies" installment, MGM pairs two thrillers that have a bond in name only, as both films are very unlike. For this reviewer, as a decent "American Gothic" type-thriller, THE ATTIC remains the more enjoyable of the two even though it's overlong and quite predictable.
THE ATTIC starts with a 30-something
woman named Louise who sits in her room and watches old movies of her fiancé
who disappeared on the day they were to be married. We learn that she's a lonely,
soon-to-retire librarian who is suicidal, alcoholic and has to serve her loathsome,
wheelchair-bound father (whose accident she caused), played by an elderly Ray
Milland in one of his last films.
Much time is spent on Louise's relationship with the incoming young librarian (Ruth Cox) who's the only one she can seem to trust, and proving how odd the film is, as a gift, she spends $150 on a pet chimp to cheer her up! Her father is totally tyrannical and humorless, and Louise imagines punishing him in various ways that are shown as hilarious dream sequences. You haven't lived until you see Milland getting a face full of chocolate cake or being electrocuted in the tub while wearing a oversized shower cap!
THE
ATTIC was the only film directed by George Edwards, who did a lot of producing
and writing, and often collaborated with Curtis Harrington. The film could have
used some tighter editing since some of its subplots seem to go nowhere. Snodgress
(THE FURY) is a very capable actress who does a good job portraying a character
that is being slowly driven to madness, and Milland is fun to watch in his final
nasty old man role of the 70s. Check out the scene where Milland falls out of
his wheelchair--the ancient, bald-headed actor is suddenly replaced by a youthful
stuntman with a full head of brown hairI
On the flip side of the disc is
CRAWLSPACE, a 1986 release from Charles Band's Empire Pictures. CRAWLSPACE has
its followers due to the presence of Klaus Kinski and for other sorted reasons,
but for this reviewer, the picture remains an ugly, depressing affair. Kinski
stars as an ex-Nazi who runs a suburban boarding house rented by bimbos with
big 80s hair. He has the place equipped with secret passage-ways and kinky murder
devices, and at night he lurks through the roomy air duct as a voyeur who studies
the girls actions and makes strange tapping noises, eventually killing them
in nasty ways.
Like John Carradine and Cameron
Mitchell, Kinski made a lot of movies, and a lot of trash, and CRAWLSPACE certainly
is trashy. It all seems rather pointless, and for me the film can't even be
redeemed by his performance. Kinski rips apart rats, tears a women's tongue
out and keeps her 
prisoner,
watches old Nazi films, wears women's' makeup, and plays Russian Roulette nightly
to decipher if he should continue his work. There's a cartoonish Nazi hunter
who wouldn't make it in the worst 80s sitcom, and John Buechler's Halloween
store body organs only make matters more nauseating. About the only thing redeeming
about CRAWLSPACE is the score by Pino Donaggio.
Two films that many probably thought would never come to the DVD format, MGM's transfers on THE ATTIC and CRAWLSPACE are terrific. Letterboxed at 1.85:1 with Anamorphic enhancement, both films appear flawless, with the more-recent CRAWLSPACE looking a tad better than its co-feature. The mono sound for both is fine, and there are removable subtitles in Spanish, French and English. There is not trailer for THE ATTIC, but one for CRAWLSPACE is included. (George R. Reis)