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The Spider Labyrinth

Original title: Il nido del ragno
  • 19881988
  • UnratedUnrated
  • 2h
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
628
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
64,519
18,250
The Spider Labyrinth (1988)
HorrorMysteryThriller
Alan Whitmore, a young American researcher, goes to Budapest to visit Professor Roth, with whom he collaborated on a secret project called "Intextus" while a mysterious killer in on the loos... Read allAlan Whitmore, a young American researcher, goes to Budapest to visit Professor Roth, with whom he collaborated on a secret project called "Intextus" while a mysterious killer in on the loose...Alan Whitmore, a young American researcher, goes to Budapest to visit Professor Roth, with whom he collaborated on a secret project called "Intextus" while a mysterious killer in on the loose...
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
628
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
64,519
18,250
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Gianfranco Giagni
    • Writers
      • Riccardo Aragno(screenplay)
      • Tonino Cervi(screenplay)
      • Cesare Frugoni(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Roland Wybenga
      • Paola Rinaldi
      • Margareta von Krauss
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Gianfranco Giagni
    • Writers
      • Riccardo Aragno(screenplay)
      • Tonino Cervi(screenplay)
      • Cesare Frugoni(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Roland Wybenga
      • Paola Rinaldi
      • Margareta von Krauss
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 20User reviews
    • 22Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • Photos6

    The Spider Labyrinth (1988)
    The Spider Labyrinth (1988)
    The Spider Labyrinth (1988)
    The Spider Labyrinth (1988)
    The Spider Labyrinth (1988)

    Top cast

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    Roland Wybenga
    • Professor Alan Whitmore
    Paola Rinaldi
    • Genevieve Weiss
    Margareta von Krauss
    • Celia Roth
    Claudia Muzii
    • Maria
    William Berger
    William Berger
    • Mysterious Man
    Stéphane Audran
    Stéphane Audran
    • Mrs. Kuhn
    Valeriano Santinelli
    Massimiliano Pavone
    Arnaldo Dell'Acqua
    • Polgár Móricz
    László Sipos
      Attila Lõte
        Bob Holton
        Bill Bolender
        Bill Bolender
        • Chancellor Hubbard
        John Morrison
        • Director
          • Gianfranco Giagni
        • Writers
          • Riccardo Aragno(screenplay)
          • Tonino Cervi(screenplay) (story)
          • Cesare Frugoni(screenplay)
        • All cast & crew
        • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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        Storyline

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        Did you know

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        • Trivia
          The original script for this movie, written by Tonino Cervi, Riccardo Aragno and Cesare Frugoni, dated from a few years earlier its release. As director Gianfranco Giagni explained, "It seemed a bit dated to me, so I called scriptwriter Gianfranco Manfredi and together we tried to give it a more modern framing story." Firstly, Giagni and Manfredi changed the setting from Venice to Budapest, frequently visited by Italian cinema in those years: "It is a city with many Gothic elements, with disquieting buildings in an apparently rational context ... cities like Budapest, Prague or Sarajevo suggest a sense of anxiety: behind their 'normality' there lies in fact a hidden 'abnormality."

        User reviews20

        Review
        Review
        Top review
        9/10
        Actually scary!
        In the late eighties, it seemed like the Italian film industry went full out to create an interest in their horror movies, resulting in cheeseball films like The Red Monks, Ghosthouse and Witchery. Fulci gave us House of Clocks (good), Aenigma (okay), Demonia and Sweethouse of Horrors (painful), and Lenzi had House of Lost Souls (good) and House of Witchcraft. You've Lamberto Bava's Graveyard Disturbance and Demons 3 The Ogre out there too, not to mention those Zombi sequels and Marcello Avalone's Spectres and Maya and etc etc. None of those are as effective or genuinely scary as Spider Labyrinth. Why, I'm not quite sure, but this film lacks the cheese factor of any of those films and seems to go all out for creating a surreal, creepy atmosphere.

        In America, a company who are working on an international project have lost touch with a Professor Roth in Budapest, so they send one of their own, Professor Whitmore, out to Hungary to find out what's going on. He's driven to Roth's house by Roth's beautiful assistant, only to be warned by Roth's wife that he's been acting strangely. Roth himself does appear to be freaked out by something, and when alone with Whitmore, gives him some notes and Polaroid photographs and tells him to meet him later that evening.

        Whitmore then goes to his hotel, run by a creepy lady and apparently full of strange residents who continually stare at Whitmore. He also discovers that Roth's assistant lives across the road and isn't shy about showing of her assets, if you know what I mean. Once he goes back to Roth he finds the man murdered (hanging from the ceiling by cobwebs), and that he never had a wife in the first place. That's bad enough, but the local policeman takes Whitmore's passport, so now he's stuck in a strange land.

        He decides to do a bit of investigating and this leads to people (including William Berger) trying to warn him off, him getting lost in Budapest itself (where the city seems to deliberately get him lost), and a strange creature with a nerve shattering shriek going around killing people. I'll go no further than that plot wise.

        What works here is the great music, cinematography, and the ending, which took me by surprise. There's no attempts here to connect with the youth eighties style by having youngsters in the film (like Ghosthouse or House of Lost Souls), no cheese (as in Witchouse), and some serious time has been spent making every shot creepy, to give you the feeling that every single person Whitmore encounters has something to hide. I see similarities with Argento in some respects, but this film unfolds a lot more slowly and there's not a drop of blood until 40 minutes in.

        I'd never even heard of this film until last week, and I've been actively seeking out Italian horror for over fifteen years! It's available on Youtube in a blurry, Japanese subtitled version, so you can watch it for free, but this needs to be released on DVD. It's brilliant.
        helpful•7
        0
        • Bezenby
        • Aug 1, 2014

        Details

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        • Release date
          • August 25, 1988 (Italy)
        • Country of origin
          • Italy
        • Language
          • Italian
        • Also known as
          • Spider Labyrinth - In den Fängen der Todestarantel
        • Filming locations
          • Budapest, Hungary
        • Production companies
          • Reteitalia
          • Splendida Film
        • See more company credits at IMDbPro

        Technical specs

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        • Runtime
          2 hours
        • Color
          • Color
        • Sound mix
          • Stereo
        • Aspect ratio
          • 1.85 : 1

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