Nella stretta morsa del ragno

Although I haven't seen CASTLE OF BLOOD, the earlier film version of this movie. I can still say that it was beautifully photographed, and painfully atmospheric. Which is a good thing. I picked this film up in a 20 movie- 10 DVD boxed set titled NIGHTMARES FROM THE CRYPT. From what I hear, this movie was extremely rare to come by. I'm glad to see that it has a new DVD release. I say stop by Sam Goody, pick up the boxed set for $30 and have a horror film weekend with some friends. And be sure to watch this film first, with all the lights off. You'll love it. Now, I'm going to go pick up CASTLE OF BLOOD so I can compare. Have fun!

When Michèle Mercier appears in the sequence when she's still "alive" and puts on a necklace,it is obvious that the director was thinking of her "Angelique " character.The scene looks like an outtake of the Bernard Borderie's saga.

"Nella..." is certainly an underrated work:it does not rely on special effects or on gore and sex is kept to the minimum.Probably influenced by Bava,Margheriti creates fear with his camera ,using elements of the settings ,a mirror for instance.His lead is an earnest thespian,Anthony Franciosa, a former student of the Actor's Studio,not a mediocre amateur as we often meet in European horror movies.Supernatural is smartly introduced and the screenplay is much more elaborated than usually.Many people will disagree but Amenabar's style in "the others" is not that much different,even if that director is infinitely superior to Margheriti."Nella..." was also certainly influenced by Robert Wise's classic "the haunting " (1963!!!) as far as the conclusion is concerned.

Poe's presence (Klaus Kinski) and the fact that the hero's first name is "Allan" do not bring much to the movie.

In spite of the poor rating,I sincerely believe that fantasy and horror buffs won't waste their time if they watch "nella...."

I REALLY like Klaus Kinski. He made some wonderful movies like Aguirre: Wrath of God, Fitzgaraldo, Android and Nosferatu...so I buy anything with him in it.

I bought Web of the Spider because of Klaus. Well, you can forget about that. I peered into the darkness of the opening scenes and tried with some difficulty to tell if I was looking at K.K. or not.

At the end of the movie there was more of the same, and most of it could have been left out...plotwise.

I was a little let down, but I stuck with it, and was surprised at the quality of this little gem! It's atmospheric and moody and well done.

I enjoyed my first viewing of it tonight, and I'm looking forward to watching it again.

Danza Macabra probably is by far one's most cherished picture made by Antonio Margherite ever, even it was made upon a lowest budge, unfortunately this near masterpiece wasn't well received at its release time, gaining countless defenders aftermaths, utterly unsatisfied Margherite devised an improved remake in color seven years later supported by a stelar cast as the American Anthony Franciosa, the gorgeous French Michèle Mercier, the classy-Polish of Germanic descendant Klaus Kinski also the Germans Peter Carsten and Karin Field among others Italian actors.

Due overlong offering in everlasting flashbacks letting the audience a slight gut-wrenching mostly of time, worst the slow pace narrative without lack of action properly speaking undermines it deeply, the so awaited sexy sequences are so shortly that dishearten the viewers, thus the two female ladies Michelli Mercier & Karin Field almost weren't exploited as others Euro productions, therefore ends up in another failure, the own Margherite dislikes it plenty, furthermore the picture was cut and maimed in some countries, so recently it was restored in a full-length version as Margherite conceived is finally available.

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First watch: 2025 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.25.

I recently found myself an original Italian widescreen print of this film that is gorgeous, and helps explain some of the negative user comments about it. Nella stretta morsa del ragno, as I have been taught to call it, is more than just a technicolor revisitation of Antonio Marghetti's CASTLE OF BLOOD. The problem is that he tried to make it much too more -- to explore the period detail in particular -- and in doing so the focus of the film became muddled.

One of the aspects that made CASTLE OF BLOOD so remarkable was Marghetti's use of light and dark in such a calculated manner -- whenever Alan Foster strikes a match or lights a candle, it is an EVENT within the framework of the shot. In NELLA STRETTA, candles and matches become props to be carried around by characters to establish the sense of place & setting.

Marghetti's greatest miscalculation, though, was in lighting his sets to show off the rich, exquisite detail his larger budget could afford. The result is a series of events that look like they were filmed on a movie set, not a nightmare playing out in front of our eyes in living black and white. On that plane of reasoning, NELLA STRETTA has more in common with Marghetti's VIRGIN OF NUREMBERG with Christopher Lee, which is all about color picture texture and the musical score. NELLA STRETTA also amps up the music, with a Robert Fripp-ish atonal guitar riff that pops up whenever something weird is about to happen. The film this becomes almost formulaic, and the suspense generated in CASTLE OF BLOOD becomes more of a slog to get to the good parts.

And there is one really, REALLY good part: I still remember it scaring me so much as a kid I refused to go into our basement for weeks afterwards ... It is the segment when Dr. Carmus takes his little trip down into the Blackwood family crypt and finds something that should probably have best gone undisturbed.

'Tis a pity, though, that an adventurous company like Blue Underground or Anchor Bay Entertainment doesn't resurrect and "restore" this bizarre, flawed but interesting bit of Eurohorror; With his widescreen shot compositions and color schemes intact, the Italian cut I found not only runs circles around the prints turning up on the Brentwood and Diamond DVD sets, but it does away with the "another film where every shot is a closeup" charge -- those closeups are the result of a widescreen image being chopped, reformatted and blown up to play back on television sets. And, as is evident in the latest DVD release by Diamond, some of the distributors looped, slowed down or even froze individual frames to cover up what little graphic luridness that Marghetti used and was deemed unacceptable.

Yet right there we come to the meat of the thesis on why NELLA STRETTA MORSA DEL RAGNO will always be looked upon as less than a success -- it is too tame for the time period it was made in. The Italian print does include some very brief nudity and, like the Synapse DVD release of CASTLE OF BLOOD, spends more time establishing the illicit lesbian relationship between Elizabeth and Julia ... But it's nothing too thrilling, and by today's standards the whole affair has the shock effect of a good DARK SHADOWS episode.

Yet it is worth checking out, especially if you are a fan of atmospheric 1970's period Eurohorror with a touch of the erotic. Timeless Video's VHS runs 94 minutes but has really awful color rot to the print. Brentwood's print from the CIRCUS OF DEATH and TALES OF TERROR box sets runs about 96 minutes and looks a bit better, but not much. For the present, the version to go with for US buyers is to be found on Diamond's double bill DVD with CIRCUS OF FEAR, runs about 98 minutes, has a somewhat richer color range and much better quality audio, and for it's budget line price you really can't beat it.

I give WEB OF THE SPIDER/NELLA STRETTA MORSA DEL RAGNO *** out of ****, but only because I have a soft spot for it, and still feel the hair rise up on my neck whenever Dr. Carmus lights his candle and goes looking for that breathing sound .... shiver!