Web of the Spider (1971) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by SpaghettiNoir ★★★

  Antonio Margheriti remakes his own Castle of Blood with color, boobs, and a Riz Ortolani score, but somehow it's blander save for a Klaus Kinski (playing Edgar Allan Poe!) crypt freakout during the opening credits. I'll likely check out the 20-minute longer Italian cut at some point.

• Review by Bloodspiller🩸 ★★★½

  The Web and the Body

  Watched the English version and the Italian version, In the Grip of the Spider, back to back. The English is a recent print and looks great while the Italian is in SD and includes about 17 extra minutes of runtime. If you watch the shorter version, I'd still say you're not missing much extra.

  Extremely slow but fascinating ghost story with superb atmosphere. I especially like how the world of the living and the dead collide at the castle. If you like 60/70s gothic, you should at least hear this one out.

• Review by cherryz ★★½

  All these jealous ghosts around the one beauty.

  I wondered if she realised how much of a web she was. Did you stay for me? What a doughball way to die

• Review by deMicha ★½

  Deutscher Titel:
  Dracula - Die Nacht des Grauens
  Dracula im Schloß des Grauens (104 Minuten)

  Der Journalist Alan Foster wettet mit Lord Blackwood, im beisein von Edgar Allan Poe, das er eine Nacht in dessen Schloss verbringt. Dort angekommen merkt Foster schnell das er nicht allein im Schloss ist.

  Deutsch/Französisch/Italienischer Gruselfilm von 1971, der nicht viel besonderes zu bieten hat. Das beste ist noch Klaus Kinski der Edgar Allan Poe spielt, leider aber nur ca. 15 Minuten. Alles andere ist durchschnittsware aus der Zeit, gruselstimmung kommt hier keine richtig auf. Ein paar nette Szenen gibt es zu sehen, aber das war es leider auch.

• Review by hammerhead44 ★½ 1

  Holy cow Tubi. What dumpster did you dig this dog shit VHS copy from in order to rip and put on your service? Did I watch it? Of course. The pan & scan on this is simply awful.

  Antonio Margheriti’s remake of a film he only made 7 years prior. The reason was to make a colour version. A haunted house story. It is sooooo slow! I fell asleep on the first attempt. It lacks atmosphere. Kinski is good but only gets 5-10 minutes of screen time. Another thing, every one is dressed in 19th Century period clothing except the lead who looks like he was dropped in from 1970. The best thing about it is Michéle Mercier, who is stunning.

  Apparently the B&W original Castle of Blood (1964) is better. This was a chore to get through. Even Margheriti said it was a stupid decision to remake it.

  3.5/10

• Review by Jim Y ★★★

  For some reason Antonio Margheriti remade Castle of Blood, in color with Anthony Franciosa with an appearance by Klaus Kinski as Poe. That’s it, that’s the review.

  Not great, but would have been perfect for your local station’s Creature Feature at 11pm on a Saturday night.

• Review by Jim Dooley ★★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  I watched this again in preparation for the upcoming release from Severin Films, "Danza Macabra: Vol. Two" which will include 4K-UHD versions of CASTLE OF BLOOD and its longer running Italian version! It looks like the Italian Version is even a couple of minutes longer than the cobbled-together International Version (from English, French and Italian prints) that I bought some years ago. Woof!

  Instead of the shorter Blu-ray version known as WEB OF THE SPIDER, I again watched the longer version called IN THE GRIP OF THE SPIDER. Unfortunately, the picture quality appears to be sourced from a video tape master.

  However, building on my previous write-up, I noticed two items I'd missed before:

  * Elizabeth's demise isn't shown in…

• Review by STEVEN ★★★★

  Swift diversion from my next few Danza Macabra viewings, in order to stream the other half of that classic 1964 film. After it released as a box office failure, director Antonio Margheriti had the bright idea to remake it nearly beat for beat in color. Web of the Spider, as it stands, is a 1971 variant for a slightly different set of horror fans. Sure, it can be argued that the cinematography and the atmosphere suffers from the brand new visual flair, but in my opinion, it just goes to show how the creator had improved in technique and skill over that eight year period. No, it doesn't have Barbara Steele or exquisite noir-like shadowing or the same kind of…

• Review by Justin Decloux ★★★½

  A reporter makes a bet that he can stay in a haunted castle for the night. Nothing could go wrong!

  Margheriti remakes his classic gothic tingler CASTLE OF BLOOD in a more modern style: A mixture of smooth dolly shots and nervy handheld camerawork. It's a novel way to film a hoary Poe-inspired tale because there's no blood, special effects or carnage, just a man wandering a spiderweb covered castle until he bumps into a bunch of ghosts with murder on their mind. I'm a big fan of the pure mood stretches but could have done without the presence of Mr. Exposition who triggers a flashback to illustrate how all the undead residents met their maker. More spooking! Less 'splaining!

  Featuring Klaus Kinski briefly sweating it up as Edgar Allan Poe.

• Review by Jim Dooley ★★★★ 4

  Okay ... to make sense of this, I need to create something of a personal timeline for the story:
  
  * In 1964, my Dad took me to the movies to see the American release version, CASTLE OF BLOOD. This absolutely freaked out a 9-year-old kid, and there were two scenes that stayed in my mind into adulthood: the corpse breathing in the coffin and the ending;
  
  * In the late 1970’s, I saw a pan-and-scan remake called WEB OF THE SPIDER. It looked to be a shot for shot reshoot of the CASTLE OF BLOOD script by the same Director, Antonio Margheriti, only now it was in color. Unfortunately, it didn’t have Barbara Steele as Elizabeth.…

• Review by Ekkard Bäuerle ★★★ 2

  Typisch deutsch eigentlich, dass DRACULA IM SCHLOSS DES SCHRECKENS gar nicht vorkommt... Antonio Margheriti, der später Söldnerbriketts wie KOMMANDO LEOPARD presste, lässt in der kurzen, guten Rahmenhandlung Klaus Kinski als E. A. Poe grimassieren und langweilt uns im Hauptteil mit einem chaotischen Beziehungswirrwarr und psychedelischem Gruselnonsens. Mehrere Topless-Sequenzen steigern die Genreverwirrung noch. Der gute alte Peter Carsten gibt einen verstorbenen Grafen mit Blutarmut. Klingt immer noch deutlich besser als es eigentlich ist.

• Review by The_Fox ★★ 3

  “As you know my work, it suffices that you say that you don’t understand it.”

  Nicely set, with Klaus Kinski doing his demented performance routinely in a cheap Italian production, even if only for a few minutes of the whole movie.

  The Italian version runs ca. 106 minutes, the German version 93. I watched the German cut in HD. Already this has lengths, but I always appreciate a good ghost house atmosphere.