Spider Labyrinth - In den Fängen der Todestarantel

This largely unknown Italian horror movie encapsulates the best of Italian horror. We've got Giallo elements, supernatural elements, surreal ambiance and a dark, sinister plot. Despite a lovely murder scene that takes place in the middle of a load of bed sheets, the first half of the film is largely rather uninspiring; but as the film moves on, it mutates into one of the most grisly assaults that I've ever seen from Italy. Many people that have seen this movie have labelled it a Giallo, and while the film does have it's Giallo moments in the first half - I'd put Spider Labyrinth in with the robust Gothic horror films such as Kill Baby Kill, Inferno and Suspiria before listing it amongst the likes of Solange and The Bird With the Crystal Plumage. The plot follows a professor who is sent to stay with a fellow professor for reasons that are always left rather vague. It's not long before his professor host ends up dead, and our hero is being plunged into a world of mystery and sinister cults, which all seems to focus around some strange 'fist-sized' black balls.

Italian horror is well known for not making a lot of sense and this film suffers from a screenplay that adheres to that 'rule'. The intrigue is generated towards the start mainly because of the fact that the film is so difficult to follow, but once the film enters it's more satisfying second half, these problems are somewhat resolved. Even while the film isn't making a whole lot of sense, however, it still remains interesting by way of its atmosphere. Atmosphere tends to be more important in this sort of film anyway, so the fact that this one relies on it is largely to its credit. The beautiful Italian locations are well shot and the lighting in the scenes indoors gives the film exactly the right mood. The underground scenes towards the end represent the film's strongest location shoots, and are one of the main reasons why it ultimately succeeds. The special effects look extremely cheap and are mostly stop-motion. However, they're really disgusting also, and the final scene; even though the 'monster' is a doll, really is nightmarish. Overall, I could easily understand anyone that doesn't like Spider Labyrinth; but it hit the nail on the head for me, and I definitely recommend it to my fellow Italian horror cinema fans!

The Spider Labyrinth, to my knowledge, has never had an official DVD/Blu-Ray release and that's a shame. Much of its power comes from its creepy visuals. The dialogue and a few plot developments don't always work, but there's no shortage of imaginative moments throughout.

A young man ravels overseas to see what the hold up is with a professor and finds the man incredibly paranoid to the point of stark raving mad. He's found murdered the next day and this leads to an investigation into the occult.

The Spider Labyrinth is similar in mood and story to some of Dario Argento's supernatural giallos and it also has a nicely paranoid feel like a Roman Polanski horror film. Maybe not everything works, but it's a journey worth taking.

A professor sent to Italy to check on a reclusive colleague finds himself in a world whose reality seems less and less certain. That's about all one needs to know about the plot. Most Italian horror is mood driven not plot focused. The Spider Labyrinth certainly owes a debt to Dario Argento. We have a mystery, a sect, a hotel with strange residents, and the unsettling feeling that the protagonist left reality behind the moment he stepped off the airplane. The world of the film is one of magic, just like in Suspiria or Inferno, yet the film does not fall into the trap of being a rip-off of those films. Only one scene, the murder of a maid in a room with hanging sheets, suffers from being overly familiar. Otherwise, the film has the feel of an Argento film without coming across as theft. While The Spider Labyrinth is not without problems (some hokey FX; an at times easy to predict plot), it seems more daring and evocative than Mother of Tears, Argento's last Three Mothers film. I am surprised by how little attention the film has gotten in the U.S. even with horror film fans like myself.

"Spider Labyrinth" is a strange and slow but engaging Giallo-type thriller that doesn't have any big names involved in the production (except maybe – if you're an insider – special effects wizard Sergio Stivaletti) but it nevertheless stands as one of the greatest undiscovered gems of late 80's Italian horror cinema. Around this time, the Giallo (which is essentially a stalk & slash movie with some additional trademarks) ran low on inspiration, but this movie brings some imaginative diversity to the sub genre by adding occult sub plots. Sort of like Sergio Martino already attempted to achieve in the early seventies with "All the Colors of the Dark". The plot opens with a brief but atmospheric flashback/dream sequence immediately clarifying the protagonist's link and phobia for large spiders; a small detail that will prove very relevant later in the film. Alan Whitmore is an American professor studying ancient dead languages. He's part of his university's project called Intextus, which concerns professors from all around the globe collaborating to translate and comprehend one specific long lost language. The correspondent in Budapest – Prof. Roth – hasn't been heard of in a long time and, since his input is particularly fundamental, Alan is assigned to travel to Hungary and meet up with him. Alan arrives in an overall uncanny and hostile environment, but nevertheless comes into contact with Roth through his amiable and stunningly beautiful secretary Genevieve. Shortly after, Prof. Roth is found murdered under mysterious circumstances and Alan gradually becomes sucked deeper and deeper into a (spider's) cobweb of occult conspiracies. Slow and indistinctive at first, "Spider Labyrinth" marvelously unfolds into a hugely macabre and unnerving thriller. Considering the plot (and perhaps after a few slight changes) and some of the malignant characters, THIS should have been the final chapter in Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy! Director Gianfranco Giagni may perhaps be a relatively unknown name in the Italian horror industry, but he promptly proves himself to be capable of maintaining a grisly atmosphere throughout the film and even proportionally builds up more tension towards a literally mesmerizing climax. The sinister Budapest filming locations form the ideal setting for a tale like this, but everything else is entirely Giagni's accomplishment (like, for example, empty swings and toy balls bouncing seemly by themselves). Then, last but not least, there's the work of Sergio Stivaletti in the special effects department. The effects – and particularly those during the finale – are shocking and masterfully nauseating. I've always been a big fan of Sergio Stivaletti's 'art' and once again he surpassed himself his own craftsmanship. If you like horror, and I do mean Horror with a capital H, I guarantee you'll be staring at the last fifteen minutes of "Spider Labyrinth" with your mouth and eyes wide open. Bravo, Mr. Stivaletti!

An American professor of archeology Alan Whitmore is ordered by his superiors at his university to go to Budapest.He travels there to work with another researcher and stumbles into pagan worshippers of a giant subterranean spider monsters.A crazed demonic killer is slaughtering those who stumble unto the secrets of 4000 year old cult and there seems no way out of the labyrinth."Spider Labirynth" is an eerie and very stylish homage to Italian horror as well as the film with extremely dense Lovecraftian atmosphere of terror and menace.The use of colors in "Spider Labirynth" reminds me Dario Argento's brilliant "Suspiria" and "Inferno".The special visual effects by Sergio Stivaletti are gruesome and bloody and the suspense slowly builds up.9 out of 10.Along with Michele Soavi's "Deliria" definitely the best Italian horror movie of late 80's.