Web of the Spider

Web of the Spider
dvd cover
Directed by	Antonio Margheriti
Starring	Anthony Franciosa Klaus Kinski
Music by	Riz Ortolani
Release date(s)	August 26, 1971
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

It begins with Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski), gone insane, trying to confirm his story about the ghosts by checking out their tombs. However, he doesn't go too far to avoid being haunted and killed. He describes his story in horror accent, trying to make the people believe him. As of later, a journalist named Alan Foster (Anthony Franciosa), has visited Poe to drive him out of madness. But, he is forced to challenge the horror writer on the authenticity of his stories, which leads to him accepting a bet from Lord Blackwood to spend the night in a haunted castle on All Soul's Eve. At first, in very effective and horrifying nature, Foster is surprised by ghosts who appear to be half-humans at that moment. Later, they drive him insane by playing his mind like patsy, ghosts of the murdered inhabitants appear to him throughout the night, re-enacting the events that lead to their deaths. As of the ghosts he meets, there was Elisabeth Blackwood (Michèle Mercier) who falls in love with Foster, the annoying and well-being hated Julia (Karin Field), the rough and criminal tipped William Perkins (Silvano Tranquilli) and the most despicable one of all, Dr. Carmus (Peter Carsten). In near the end of the film, the ghosts reveal their true nature. They weren't actually ghosts, but they were vampires with powers of ghosts, they need Foster's blood in order to maintain their existence. Because of she loved him, Elisabeth tried to save Foster by aiding his escape. He succeeded in escaping the castle, but not the garden... It was his stupidity that killed him. But, at least he wasn't transformed to a vampire, his death was sudden, he was stabbed by the razors which existed on the main gate when he didn't focus on his movements, pushed the door hardly until it reacted and smashed him between the two gates.

Cast

• Anthony Franciosa - Alan Foster
• Michèle Mercier - Elisabeth Blackwood
• Klaus Kinski - Edgar Allan Poe
• Peter Carsten - Dr. Carmus
• Silvano Tranquilli - William Perkins
• Karin Field - Julia
• Raf Baldassarre - Herbert
• Irina Maleeva - Elsie Perkins
• Enrico Osterman - Lord Thomas Blackwood
• Marco Bonetti - Maurice
• Vittorio Fanfoni
• Carla Mancini
• Paolo Gozlino

References

1. ^ "New York Times: Web of the Spider". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/116178/Nella-stretta-morsa-del-ragno/overview. Retrieved 2008-10-25. 

External links

• Web of the Spider at the Internet Movie Database