Tim (Jonathan Silverman) and Susan (Lori Loughlin) Gates are eager to move into their new house with their teenage son Shane (Sterling Beaumon) and their younger son Taylor (Xander Stolberg), as well as their college-bound daughter Kayla (Raleigh Holmes), despite the house's dark history of drowned children and foreclosure.

As they settle into the house, strange things frequently occur, like the garbage cans being taken out for collection without explanation.

The next day, the ladder from the crawlspace descends into view, and the house's previous owner Aldon Webber (Steven Weber) climbs down.

He watches them closely through the air vents, and he even creeps into Kayla's room one night to film her sleeping.

Webber's next victim is Taylor's babysitter, who was not watching as the boy played with Shane's paintball gun.

She is under the impression that Webber is living in their old home until the phone rings and the answering machine plays the Gates' message.

Chuck the Exterminator (David Koechner) investigates the crawlspace and discovers Webber's sleeping area, which he has plastered with pictures of the Gates as well as his own family.

Fed up with all the suspicious activity at the house, Kayla installs a webcam, which she is monitoring at a coffee shop when she sees Webber disable it.

Reviewers compared Crawlspace to the 1989 Gary Busey film Hider in the House,[3] and Shock Till You Drop commented that while Crawlspace was overly familiar, "at the end of the day, it pays respect to the notion that even the safest place in our world may still have secrets.

"[4] Starburst gave it seven out of ten stars and praised the film for the different ways that Weber's character murdered his victims.