Steven Weber is an unstable "lodger" who lives in the attic of his old home, foreclosed on him after the loss of his children to drowning in the backyard pool led to his inability to return to work or move on with his life so he could continue to make payments to the bank. The family that owns the house he once lived could very well be in danger as he seems on the verge of going on a homicidal rampage at any time. Jonathan Silverman (Weekend at Bernie's), Lori Loughlin (Full House), Raleigh Holmes (final girl?), Sterling Beaumon (the foul-mouthed prankster), Xander Stolberg (the little brother that reminds Weber of his child), Paul James (as Raleigh's boyfriend, Derek), Shannon Welles (as the creepy old woman neighbor who sees too much and gets it with a vacuum by Weber), Nikki Moore (as the hot babysitter who earns Weber's ire when she leaves Xander unattended to have sex with Sterling for some of his stolen mom's cash) and Leila Leigh (as Weber's ex-wife who is a victim of learning that the house her former husband lived is now owned by some other family, unable to escape when he believes she will ruin his current domicile situation) make up the rest of the cast. Weber is stone cold psycho here, and instead of reeling us into his plight we just always see him as some nutjob willing to kill anyone at anytime, only occasionally revealing the trauma and pain of what he endured which led to his derangement. The film does an okay job of pointing out how unnerving it could be to have a creep living up in the attic of your home without your knowledge of his existence. What Weber does to his wife doesn't exactly ingratiate him to us
in fact; it makes little sense considering he wanted her back so he could return to a normal state of mind. "Crawlspace" is formula slasher all the way. It is kind of ludicrous that when the police are called after it is proved Weber was in the house that the attic wasn't inspected due to the threat he could cause them. Of course, the film wouldn't have the "fight for the survival" close these movies are known for. The violence by Weber is rather shocking (the neck snap in the car door window in particular) as a curling iron and vacuum are buried into the mouths of victims. A little nudity thanks to the hot babysitter is included. Silverman's revelation that he could have helped Weber and chose to let him lose the house certainly establishes some empathy for the killer, but there's only so much mileage you can get from that when he's offing folks with little guilt. The twist ending the film is preposterous as multiple bullet wounds and an exploding paint can would leave little chance of Weber surviving (and even if he did, he would not be spending any time outside a prison cell). This is Weber's "psycho killer" role...most veteran actors of his talent usually check mark this off their list at some point. Nothing about this film will probably remain with you after it is over...it is that forgettable.
Review of Crawlspace
