Web of the Spider (1971)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Web of the Spider (1971) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Journalist Alan Foster (Anthony Franciosa) is having a conversation with Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski) when a bet is made. The bet is that Alan can't spend an entire night inside the Blackwood Castle where there are rumors of strange things inside.I've always enjoyed watching remakes because it gives someone a new stab at some familiar material. There were a handful of directors like John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock who managed to remake their own works, which is an even more interesting thing to do. Italian director Antonio Margheriti made CASTLE OF BLOOD in 1964 and seven years later he'd do a color remake with WEB OF THE SPIDER. As I said, I really do enjoy watching remakes but there's no question that this film is really lacking when compared to the original. I think the biggest issue that this film has is the fact that it's in color and this just takes away so much from the story. The original film contained some great B&W cinematography that actually added to the atmosphere and it actually helped make a rather eerie picture. The sets and costume design look great here and the cinematography is great but the color just really doesn't help matters.I'd also argue that the slow nature of the film really doesn't help matters either. The problem is that there's really not much of an atmosphere here and it's certainly not creepy so the slow-burn that the director goes for just isn't as successful as I'm sure he was hoping. Yet another problem is that there just isn't anything fresh or original done with the material outside of the opening scenes with Kinski playing Poe. These early scenes were actually quite good and it's too bad that Kinski doesn't stick around for long.I thought Franciosa was good in the lead role and Michele Mercier is good as the mysterious Elisabeth. Kinski clearly steals the film but he's only at the beginning and end. As I said, WEB OF THE SPIDER is technically well-made but on its own it just doesn't have enough to really work. When compared to the original, it makes this one all the more forgettable.

Early '70s Italian Gothic horror about a journalist, Alan Foster (Anthony Franciosa), who makes a bet with Lord Thomas Blackwood (Enrico Osterman) that he can stay overnight in Blackwood's castle... and survive. Blackwood is good friends with Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski). Such is the vapid nature of this film that Poe's character is totally inconsequential to the plot. Six writers cobbled together the mishmash of a script. Franciosa spends the majority of his on-screen time wielding a candelabra and looking handsome. Finally, some eye candy shows up in the personae of Elisabeth Blackwood and Julia (Michele Mercier and Karin Field). What could have become a ghostly threesome devolves into a convoluted plot about romantic intrigue amongst the better-off-than-you, as shadows of the past reunite for a fancy ball, witnessed by Foster and his unsolicited companion, Dr. Carmus (Peter Carsten), who shows up halfway through the film: He manages to suck whatever life there was out of it, as he assumes the role of expositor and waxes eloquent about what happens to snakes after they are chopped in half. The principals' psychodrama plays out in front of them, and there is much murder and mayhem. Foster interacts effortlessly with these spirits, oblivious to the notion that there might be a trick being played on him. By the time the action ensues, we are ready to call for our last dance card. So cheap was the transfer of this film to video that the copyright shows up about five minutes before the end of the film, an end that doesn't come nearly soon enough.

Antonio Margheriti's 1971 remake of his classic "Castle of Blood" has always been criticized for being inferior in every level to it's predecessor. While I do think "Castle of Blood" is a better film, "In the Web of the Spider" does not stand so far behind. Made on a bigger budget than the 1964 version, Margheriti does a good thing by taking a different aesthetic approach than the candle-lit B&W nightmare that is the latter, and instead lighting up the set with a nice range of deep blues and orange gels to show off the more elaborate locations. It also enjoys a better cast than the original, with a highlight being the presence of Klaus Kinski as Edgar Allan Poe. At first glance, he might not seem very right for the role, but he truly nails it in a absolutely maddening performance. They even made his role slightly larger than the original, by adding a superbly creepy introduction scene in a crypt that sets the tone for the rest of the picture. Albeit not as memorable as Barbara Steele, Michele Mercier (the protagonist from the Telephone segment of Mario Bava's "Black Sabbath") is a good replacement and she has great chemistry with Anthony Franciosa (Argento's "Tenebre"), even more so than Steele and Riviere in "Castle...". Also, I found the film to be somewhat more frightening than it's predecessor, specially towards the ending. The best example of which is the scene where Carmus descends into the crypt and coms across a corpse being reanimated. The effects used in the scene are more subtle, but all the more effective in my view. Riz Ortolani's score is rather uneven. There are some memorable tunes, particularly the hauntingly beautiful love theme and the song that plays during the ball sequence, but the rest is a routine and rather distracting orchestra piece intended to create a creepy environment, whereas there are more than a few scenes where I think absolute silence would've made it all the more effective. Still, it doesn't really ruin the picture, and as I've said, it wasn't all bad. The film's major problem is the fact that it's virtually a scene-by-scene remake of the original. Surely, there are some slight improvements, such as the shirtless, hunky ghost that was looked silly in the original is now dressed and more menacing-looking, and the ending is also more subtle and tragic. Still, these elements are only a very small portion of the piece, and while they do make a difference, the whole thing failed to impress me story-wise, because I knew exactly what was going to happen next in every scene. There are no big changes and/or improvements to make it essential viewing for those who have already seen "Castle of Blood", which is a pity really, since it does have some great assets and even surpasses the latter in some ways. Also, where "Castle of Blood" felt provocative and ahead of it's time with it's depiction of sex and lesbianism, "In the Web of the Spider" feels way too restrained and tame, specially for a film that came one year after "The Vampire Lovers", which dealt with some similar themes. The sole 'gore' scene we get to see is in the very end, and is restrained to a brief shot of blood flowing from Franciosa's wound. Mind you, I'm not a gorehoud, nor do I think violence is essential to make a horror film good, but in this case I think it was more than necessary, if only to make it stand out from the original. None of these cons stopped it from being a fun and atmospheric slice of Italian Gothic, but it makes me sad to give it a mere a 7/10. If you're a fan of this type of film and haven't seen "Castle of Blood" yet, I think you might better watch this one first, but otherwise I unfortunately can't go as far as calling it the forgotten gem of continental horror it could have been.

The guy who was Poe was certainly the highlight of this very dull flick. Unfortunately, he is not in it enough to save the pick, rather he is sort of a movie bookend. For the rest of the movie we have a guy trying to win a bet by staying at a haunted house. A house no one has ever gotten out of alive...so basically he has to survive the night to win the bet. If he loses, well losing will be the least of his concerns. As soon as he arrives at the castle he meets lovely ladies and later a scientist who explains the situation. All the while nothing all that horrifying really occurs as we are treated to a few flashback like scenes. Truly a boring spectacle awaits you when you watch this flick...at least for me. Sure the scientist guy was kind of interesting too, but this is a movie that could use maybe a killing or two more, maybe a bit of nudity, certainly some time cut from its running time would have helped. Still though it ends interestingly enough and there are some people who may like this kind of horror drama hybrid.