''Web of the Spider'' ( it, Nella stretta morsa del ragno) is a 1971 horror film directed by

Antonio Margheriti Antonio Margheriti (19 September 1930 – 4 November 2002), also known under the pseudonyms Anthony M. Dawson and Antony Daisies ("daisies" is "margherite" in Italian), was an Italian filmmaker. Margheriti worked in many different genres in th ...

. The film is about the writer Alan Foster (

Anthony Franciosa Anthony George Franciosa (né Papaleo; October 25, 1928 – January 19, 2006) was an American actor most often billed as Tony Franciosa at the height of his career. He began his career on stage and made a breakthrough portraying the brother of t ...

) who accepts a bet from

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

( Klaus Kinski) and his friend Thomas Blackwood (

Enrico Osterman Enrico is both an Italian masculine given name and a surname, Enrico means homeowner, or king, derived from ''Heinrich'' of Germanic origin. It is also a given name in Ladino. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Henri ( French), ...

) to stay a night in Blackwood's castle. At the castle, Foster meets Blackwood's sister Elisabeth (

Michèle Mercier Michèle Mercier (born 1 January 1939 as Jocelyne Yvonne Renée Mercier) is a French actress. In the course of her career she has worked with leading directors like François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray, Dino Risi, Mario Monic ...

) and Julia ( Karin Field). Foster has sex with Elisabeth and wakes up to find that she was stabbed by someone whose body vanishes, allowing Foster to realize the house is possessed by ghosts. ''Web of the Spider'' is a color remake of Margheriti's earlier film ''

Castle of Blood ''Castle of Blood'' ( it, Danza Macabra, links=no) is a 1964 horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti and Sergio Corbucci. The film stars Barbara Steele, Arturo Dominici and Georges Rivière. The film was initially commissioned to director Ser ...

''.

Plot

The film is narrated by a troubled Edgar Allan Poe ( Klaus Kinski). It begins with Poe's attempts to confirm a ghost story by examining the ghosts' tombs. However, he doesn't go too far to avoid being haunted and killed. Later, a journalist named Alan Foster (

) visits Poe to drive him out of madness, but he is forced to challenge the horror writer on the authenticity of his stories. This leads to Foster's accepting a bet from Lord Blackwood to spend the night in a haunted castle on All Soul's Eve. Foster is surprised by ghosts who appear to be half-humans, in very effective and horrifying

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wo ...

. Ghosts of the murdered inhabitants appear to him throughout the night, re-enacting the events that led to their respective deaths and driving Foster to madness. He meets the following ghosts: Elisabeth Blackwood (

), who falls in love with Foster; the annoying and easy-to-hate Julia (Karin Field); the rough criminal William Perkins (

Silvano Tranquilli Silvano Tranquilli (23 August 1925 – 10 May 1997) was an Italian stage, television and film actor. Life and career Born in Rome, Silvano Tranquilli attended theatre lessons at the Sharoff Academy, and started his stage activity with the th ...

); and the most despicable one of all, Dr. Carmus (Peter Carsten). Near the end of the film, the ghosts reveal their true nature: they aren't actually ghosts, but vampires with ghostly powers, and they need Foster's blood to maintain their existence. Because she loves him, Elisabeth tries to save Foster by aiding his escape. He succeeds in escaping the castle, but not the garden. Distracted and careless, he pushes the door so hard that the metal spikes impale him on the main gate.

Cast

as Alan Foster *

as Elisabeth Blackwood * Klaus Kinski as Edgar Allan Poe *

Peter Carsten Peter Carsten (30 April 1928 – 20 April 2012) was a German actor and film producer. He appeared in 90 films between 1953 and 1999, including in supporting roles, ''Dark of the Sun'' (1968), ''Hannibal Brooks'' (1969), ''Madame Bovary'' (1 ...

as Dr. Carmus *

as William Perkins * Karin Field as Julia *

Raf Baldassarre Raf Baldassarre (17 January 1932 - 11 January 1995) was an Italian film actor. Life and career Born Raffaele Baldassarre in Giurdignano, Lecce, Apulia, he started his career in the late 1950s, being cast in many peplum and adventure films, a ...

as Herbert * Irina Maleeva as Elsie Perkins *

as Lord Thomas Blackwood * Marco Bonetti as Maurice

Production

The film was produced by Giovanni Di Addessi, with a story credited to Bruno Corbucci and Giovanni Grimaldi and score by

Riz Ortolani Riziero Ortolani (; 25 March 192623 January 2014) was an Italian composer, conductor, and orchestrator, predominantly of film scores. He scored over 200 films and television programs between 1955 and 2014, with a career spanning over fifty yea ...

. After ''

s disappointing box office, Margheriti felt he could remake the film as ''Web of the Spider'' in colour in 1970. Margheriti would later comment that it was "stupid to remake it" and that "the color cinematography destroyed everything: the atmosphere, the tension."

Release

''Web of the Spider'' was released in Italy on 26 August 1971 where it was distributed by Panta Cinematografica. The film grossed a total of 232,442,000

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

on its domestic release. It received a release in West Germany as ''Dracula im Schloß des Schreckens'' on 16 March 1972. It was released later in France on 8 February 1978 as ''Les fantômes de Hurlevent''.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Web Of The Spider 1971 films 1971 horror films Italian horror films German horror films French horror films West German films 1970s Italian-language films Horror film remakes Remakes of Italian films Films directed by Antonio Margheriti Films scored by Riz Ortolani Works about Edgar Allan Poe Films set in castles Cultural depictions of Edgar Allan Poe Films set in the 1840s 1970s Italian films 1970s French films 1970s German films