Antonio Margheriti’s Castle of Blood (1964) was a moody little Gothic gem, shot in shadowy black-and-white, with atmosphere you could almost choke on. Seven years later, he remade it in color as Web of the Spider. The result? Proof that not everything needs a paint job. Margheriti himself later admitted it was “stupid to remake it.” On this, we agree.
Color Drains the Life Out of Horror
The magic of Gothic horror lies in shadows. The black-and-white of Castle of Blood gave depth, mystery, and menace. Web of the Spider gives us… teal curtains and orange torchlight. Instead of atmosphere, we get garish lighting that makes the haunted castle look like a discount disco. You don’t feel fear so much as you expect John Travolta to strut through in bell-bottoms.
The film is supposed to drip with supernatural dread. Instead, it looks like someone spilled a box of crayons across the screen. When your ghosts look like they’ve wandered in from a shampoo commercial, you know the horror is gone.
Edgar Allan Poe, Played by Klaus Kinski (God Help Us)
In one of the film’s most baffling decisions, Klaus Kinski plays Edgar Allan Poe. On paper, inspired casting: a mad genius playing a mad genius. On screen, it’s like watching a raccoon in a velvet smoking jacket. Kinski, ever intense, snarls his way through dialogue as if Poe were a coked-up nightclub bouncer.
Poe should be tragic, fragile, haunted. Here, he’s just unsettling in the wrong way — less “literary icon” and more “guy you cross the street to avoid.”
A Plot Full of Cobwebs
The story follows journalist Alan Foster (Anthony Franciosa), who bets Poe and Lord Blackwood that he can survive the night in a haunted castle. Inside, he meets ghosts who relive their gruesome deaths, including Elisabeth (Michèle Mercier), who inexplicably falls for him.
Then, surprise! The ghosts aren’t ghosts at all — they’re vampires with ghost powers. This twist might have been clever if the film didn’t take two hours to get there, by which point the audience is praying for their own merciful death.
The climax features Foster escaping the castle only to impale himself on the gate like a clumsy tourist. It’s meant to be tragic irony. It plays like slapstick: “Oops, I ran into the door too hard.” The castle doesn’t kill him; the architecture does.
Performances: Overacting in Technicolor
Franciosa is game but miscast, looking more confused than terrified. Michèle Mercier provides glamour but not much else, and her romance with Foster has the heat of a lukewarm cup of tea. Karin Field as Julia is so shrill you start rooting for the vampires.
The supporting ghosts are stock figures: a criminal, a doctor, a femme fatale. None of them are scary; they’re just bored, as if being undead is the worst gig they’ve ever had. Which, judging by this script, it probably was.
Riz Ortolani’s Score: Music for the Wrong Movie
Riz Ortolani provides the soundtrack, which veers between lush and inappropriate. The music swells romantically when characters should be terrified, creating tonal whiplash. It’s like putting a waltz over a slasher scene — unless you’re Kubrick, it doesn’t work.
Margheriti’s Own Regret
Even the director disowned it, admitting color ruined the mood. Imagine Alfred Hitchcock saying, “You know, Psychowould’ve been better with laugh-track sound effects.” That’s the level of self-sabotage here.
By trying to make Castle of Blood more commercial, Margheriti stripped it of everything that made it memorable. What remains is a gaudy, lifeless remake that proves atmosphere cannot be manufactured with a color wheel.
Dark Humor in the Cobwebs
The funniest part of Web of the Spider is unintentional. Watching ghosts solemnly re-enact their deaths in full Technicolor feels less like horror and more like a community-theater reenactment gone wrong. The final impalement scene — Foster braining himself on a gate — is comedy gold if you’ve already given up taking the film seriously.
Even the vampires seem bored. They stalk Foster not with menace, but with the weary air of retail employees waiting for closing time.
Final Verdict
Web of the Spider is the rare remake that manages to murder its own predecessor. What was once atmospheric is now gaudy, what was once chilling is now dull. Even Klaus Kinski can’t save it — though his manic Poe is the one entertaining thing in this cobwebbed disaster.
Leonard Maltin might have written: Web of the Spider (1971). Color remake of Castle of Blood loses all atmosphere. Kinski overwrought as Poe; Franciosa miscast. Lifeless, overlong, and pointless. *½ out of ***.
And the dark humor stinger: The only thing this web catches is unsuspecting viewers, left wriggling in boredom until they too pray for the sweet release of the spiked front gate.
