I was haunted for years by a movie I saw on late night TV as a young child, about an elderly couple who discover a homeless boy living under the crawlspace beneath their porch. They take him in, and have him do odd jobs around the house (such as chopping wood-bad idea!). Things turn sour by degrees, and it becomes pretty obvious he's insane, but the elderly, childless couple refuses to see it, and ultimately, he ends up committing a murder. I had vague recollections of this movie for years, which creeped me out to no end when I saw it in my youth, but couldn't remember the title, or much else beyond basic plot points. Years later, I just happened to pick up a battered old paperback of a novel called CRAWLSPACE, by Herbert Lieberman, and it read exactly like the movie I remembered (and it's a pretty decent read, BTW). I immediately looked it up on the internet and the imdb, but to no avail (but this was when both were pretty much in their infancy). I just checked again tonight, on a whim, and sure enough, it WAS a 1972 Made For TV movie, based on Lieberman's novel, directed by John Newland of ONE STEP BEYOND fame. Does anyone else remember this atmospheric, creepy gem? I would love to get my hands on this and see it again. I have a feeling it would hold up pretty well, even today.

I've read the book but I didn't realize it had ever been made into a movie.

The new and highly suspect lable WildEye Releasing is promising a DVD of this at their website, along with THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER, but if it looks as terrible as their recent discs of SHARK KILL and MANEATERS ARE LOOSE, don't bother spending your money.

Thanks for the info. I had no idea anyone was planning on releasing CRAWLSPACE. Great news! At this point, I'll suffer through a substandard DVD. I just want to see it again, period. Hopefully NetFlix'll get it, & I won't have to shell out the bucks. Thanks again!

Heck, when I was a kid just the cover of the book used to freak me out! I read this when I was young and always got it confused with the Kinski movie, which I haven't seen and didn't realize was different from the TV movie. I'd be curious to see this now, too.