NELLA STRETTA MORSA DEL RAGNO
(In  The Grip Of The Spider.)
Aka: Dracula im Schloss des Schreckens; Web of the Spider; Les Fantomes de Hurlevent.

Director Antonio Margheriti’s remake of his own film LA DANZA MACABRA (1964). Set in 19th century England, this film opens inside a London pub where Edgar Allen Poe is telling a story to a group of entranced listeners. Among them is Alan Foster, an American journalist who has plans to interview Poe. Foster respects Poe but doubts his claims that his stories are all true. Poe and his friend Thomas Blackwood propose a bet to Foster. He shall spend the night in Blackwood’s haunted castle,  a place of terror so evil that no one has ever survived a night. The skeptical Foster gladly accepts the dare. Once there in the manor, among the dank crypts, creaking doors, billowing curtains and dark corners, he discovers that he is not alone as he was told he would be. He encounters Blackwood’s beautiful sister Elisabeth and falls in love with her only to discover she, and the other occupants of the gothic villa are not what they appear. One of the last truly Gothic horror thrillers to have come out of Italy with ghastly images worthy of director Mario Bava. Starring Anthony Franciosa, Enrico Osterman, Michele Mercier, Karen Field, Peter Carsten, Raf Baldassare, Silvano Tranquilli and Klaus Kinski as Edgar Allan Poe. Written by Bruno Corbucci and Giovanni Grimaldi. Music by Riz Ortolani. This is the uncut Italian version that runs approximately 20 minutes longer that the butchered American version and includes scenes of lesbianism, nudity and an angry decapitated snake. 

(1971-Italy/Germany/France) In Italian with English subtitles