Crawlspace (1986 film)

Crawlspace is a 1986 horrorthriller film starring Klaus Kinski as Karl Guenther, the crazed son of a Nazi doctor, who is obsessed with trapping young women and then slowly torturing them to death. The film is produced by Roberto Bessi, written and directed by David Schmoeller and also stars Talia Balsam.

Sometime later, Sophie Fisher Tan is in her apartment in the building, which is located in a big city somewhere in the USA. A man watches Sophie from her outside window on the ground floor, and Karl is seen also spying on her from behind an air vent. The man crawls through the window and surprises her, but it is only her boyfriend Hank David Abbott, whom has come to visit her. Hank and Sophie kiss and spend time on her bed as they begin to have sex while Karl continues to watch them.The next day, a man comes to Karls door of his apartment where he inquires about a vacant apartment advertised in the local newspaper. Karl takes one look at the man and tells him that it has been rented. But seconds after the man leaves, Lori Bancroft Talia Balsam enters the small urban apartment building and when she inquires about the vacant apartment, Karl hospitably takes her to it and shows her around the room. Karl introduces himself as the landlord and superintendent of the building and that the apartment was recently vacated by a young woman who disappeared without paying her rent. Karl explains about the building, the neighborhood and of the monthly rent. As Lori looks around the kitchen, Karl turns on the stove and puts his hand over the blue flame while Lori is not looking. Hiding his pain, Karl asks if she will take the apartment. Lori says yes, which prompts Karl to pull his hand away from the flame and shakes her hand with his other one. Later, Karl is back in his secret room in the attic writing in his diary and says that he is addicted to killing for it makes him feel alive. Martha, the tongueless woman in the cage, gives him a note saying Please kill me. Karl tells Martha that he cannot because he would have no one to talk to. ........

Source: Wikipedia