InspireGato
Film Perfection
RipDelight
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Aubrey Hackett
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
LeonLouisRicci
An Uncredited Remake of "Hider in the House" (1989) Starring Gary Busey, and with the Same Title of the Klaus Kinski Horror from 1986, this is a By the Book Slasher/Home Invasion Horror Throwback with Genre Trope Kills that will Seem Familiar.A Good Deal of Emphasis is Placed on the Family Unit with Many Scenes of Brother-Sister Banter and Bonding and Parent-Child Relationships and Responsibilities. It is This Focus that Gives the B-Movie a Bit of Gravity but Not Enough to Make this Rise Above Average at Best.It is Formula for Most of its Short Running Time and Might be Worth a Watch for Horror Completists and B-Movie Slummers, but Others can Skip this Styleless Movie Without Missing Anything New.
Scarecrow-88
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.
GL84
Moving into a new house, a family's unusual encounters within the house are soon discovered to be the disgruntled former owner looking for revenge against the occupants and must try to survive his vicious attacks.This was a huge disappointment and really didn't have a whole lot here that's really enjoyable. The main thing hurting this movie is the fact that the main villain here is one of the weakest and lamest villains in horror-film history. The central premise of why he's haunting the family, being so grief-stricken over losing his house that he moves into the attic and lives there undetected for as long as he does here makes for a pretty lazy story, especially with the multitude of murders committed on the property before anyone realizes he's there. Then comes the fact that the film tries to make him some sympathetic hero with the reasoning for the family's loss of the house and what they did to his psyche is pure fluff and has no regard in the rest of the story when the seemingly sympathetic hero embarks on such a rampage as what occurs here when he finally starts dishing out the violence. Even before he starts off, the fact that the majority of the film is spent on areas outside the stalking and killing that really drags this one down, as there's so much going on with him observing the family but not actually doing anything that there's such a long time in this before it actually starts getting interesting. Simply watching them in the attic has a creepy feel at first but does little to hold the viewer's attention as it goes along since that's the only tactic employed here throughout the whole first hour, and the fact that he undertakes this while they have no idea of how long he's been doing things around them is so lazy and lame that it makes them look all the stupider for failing to realize what's going on. Even the few times it seems like he should be found out are written off like they're nothing, and that makes even less sense in keeping the ruse alive. All told, this makes the main villain uniformly weak and uninteresting in such a boring film. The only thing that really holds up here is the final half, which has some rather fun confrontations and stalking to go along with some pretty nasty and bloody kills, but otherwise there's little to like here.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, Brief Nudity, a mild sex scene and children-in-danger.
rmkdec
Strangely enough in the U.K I watched this on SKY Satellite as a U.K Premiere this week on The Horror Channel yet it is listed as not yet released in U.S.A ! I will be very sad if U.K audiences miss out on this as a cinema release. For me it is surprisingly well made and modern,extremely believable story and every aspect of a families daily life is written and captured beautifully by the director and a very effective cast. In short there has been an awful accident in the pool that is now drained that afflicted the previous owners who left as the house was foreclosed by the bank...and the new family are not alone in the house and soon become aware of this fact.The twists and turns that then follow I did not expect and just when you think my that must be it another twist occurs....how will this end?..Who or what is in the house and what do they want? A spooky old lady neighbour adds to the suspense and I will reveal no more.It is so scary that as a life long horror fan if I think it is good then usually its well worth a watch. I did not expect things to pan out how they did and at the end was left with an open mouth and a feeling of wow so glad I got to watch that. Another problem is a movie with the same name has been released the same year from an Australian company and this is confusing many far and wide. That is a great shame if it means this is lost in space.
