Web of the Spider

Web of the Spider

Italian film poster
Directed by Antonio Margheriti
Starring Anthony Franciosa
Klaus Kinski
Music by Riz Ortolani
Release dates
 26 August 1971 (Italy)
Running time
 109 min.
Country Italy
France
West Germany
Language Italian

Web of the Spider (Italian: Nella stretta morsa del ragno) is the title of a 1971 Italian horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti, using the pseudonym Anthony M. Dawson. This film is also known as And Comes the Dawn... But Colored Red, Dracula im Schloß des Schreckens, Dracula in the Castle of Blood, E venne l'alba... ma tinto di rosse, Edgar Poe chez les morts vivants, Les Fantômes de Hurlevent, In the Grip of the Spider, and Le Prisonnier de l'araignée.

Klaus Kinski plays Edgar Allan Poe.[1]

It is a remake of the 1964 film Castle of Blood, also directed by Margheriti.

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 (Anthony Franciosa) 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. 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 (Michèle Mercier) who falls in love with Foster; the annoying and easy-to-hate Julia (Karin Field); the rough criminal William Perkins (Silvano Tranquilli); 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 in order 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 he is smashed between the two gates and is sliced to death by razors on the main gate. But at least he isn't transformed into a vampire.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ "New York Times: Web of the Spider". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-10-25.

External links