a review of 公寓恶魔

ℍ𝕆𝕆ℙ𝕋𝕆𝔹𝔼ℝ 𝔼𝕃𝔼𝕍𝔼ℕ ℕ𝕀𝔾ℍ𝕋 𝕋𝕎𝔼ℕ𝕋𝕐-𝕆ℕ𝔼: This is the second of the "bonus" movies selected by Cinemonster for this year's challenge, and it's kind of a doozy. Kind of a goofy mashup of PSYCHO, PEEPING TOM, and THE NIGHT PORTER with actual real-life monster Klaus Kinski as a disgraced German doctor-turned-landlord, who spies on his attractive female tenants from his apartment building's air ducts and slaughters them (and their unsuspecting male callers) with a variety of elaborately concealed deathtraps. If you guessed that Kinski's character might be an unrepentant Nazi-in-hiding, award yourself one "no-duh" point, because the movie takes that clear subtext in casting Kinski (a Wehrmacht conscript who supposedly deserted towards the end of WWII) and makes it absolutely unmistakable text by giving him a poorly-secured Nazi evidence attic complete with swastika-shaped throwing knives and a Hitler-rally highlights reel set to randomly come on whenever somebody randomly bumps the projector. There's a pervasive sense of unreality to the film, starting with the lack of any scenes *outside* of the apartment building, and ending with his tenants' stunning lack of curiosity about what's been happening to their neighbors and boyfriends. It's worth it for the absolutely gonzo last 20 minutes, complete with Kinski sliding face-first on a rolling cart through what appears to be thousands and thousands of feet of winding ventilation ducts somehow contained TARDIS-like in a smallish 5 or 6 tenant apartment house.