Legendary German actor Klaus Kinski is a household name when it comes to cult, Euro-sleaze, foreign crime and horror films.  Early in his career he had roles in many Edgar Wallace krimi films made in Germany. Later, he became a top-star in many Spaghetti Westerns, American horrors and other assorted German thrillers and cult movies in the over one-hundred films he was in. Films on his resume include Death Smiles on a Murderer, Slaughter Hotel, The Squeaker, Schizoid, Nosferatu and Creature. Because of all the European films Kinski was in throughout his career, his films are often referred to as Euro-Kinski!

With the latest Blu-ray release from Film Masters, we are now fortunate to have a pair of Klaus Kinski classic European films to enjoy. Showcased in this Blu-ray are Creature with the Blue Hand, a West German krimi thriller and Web of the Spider, a creepy Italian horror movie.

Directed by Alfred Vohrer, Creature with the Blue Hand has Kinski in the role of David Emerson, who was falsely accused of murdering his family’s gardener and is sent to an asylum. He escapes and seeks shelter at a castle owned by his twin brother Richard (also Kinski). While trying to prove his innocence, both Scotland Yard and Inspector Craig (Harald Leipnitz, The Sinister Monk, The Brides of Fu Manchu) areafter him. There is also a hooded being with a massive, spiked glove, which is the blue hand, that is roaming around the castle and killing people.

Creature with the Blue Hand is your basic, typical 60’s Wallace film with the red herrings, some humor, plot twists, funky music, and a lot of atmospheric moments to make this an entertaining movie. The movie might seem disjointed at times as it seems like there are various plots going on that eventually do connect.  

Web of the Spider is Antonio Margheriti’s own remake of Castle of Blood which he directed seven years earlier. The narrative remains the same for the most part. In this picture Klaus Kinski, who doesn’t have a huge role, plays the part of the iconic macabre story writer Edgar Allen Poe! Anthony Franciosa (Tenebrae, A Face in the Crowd) plays the doomed Alan Foster who accepts a wager to spend the night at the castle of Thomas Blackwood (Enrico Osterman) on All Souls Eve. The castle is haunted with ghosts, but Foster is a non-believer. You know what happens next after he stays at the castle to prove that he is right; that there are no ghosts!

At the start of the two movies, the Independent International Pictures logo is shown in its full glory! They were responsible for the distribution of various Al Adamson films, Frankenstein’s Blood Terror among other B-movies!

Film Masters has unearthed these two foreign classics for another excellent Blu-ray release!  Both Creature with the Blue Hand and Web of the Spider are advertised as coming from a “North American Print scanned in 4K from original 35mm archival elements”. Even though it’s part of the supplemental material, The Bloody Dead, the longer 80-minute cut of Creature with the Blue Hand with extra gore scenes added by Sam Sherman, has also been given a 4K scan.

Both films to me looked good in 1080p and overall satisfactory with many scenes showing strong colors, but, yes, there are scenes during both films where colors are bit faded, but nothing to ruin the viewing experience. There is a fair share of print damage like speckles here and there, but I take into account that both films are obscure and probably not taken the best care of. There are plenty details to much of the scenery, be in indoor shots, where much of the two films take place in. Outdoor exteriors also look good. Basically, the image quality will not completely blow you away for either film, but they do look better than previous releases and the 4K scan for the two films have done some wonders to have them look as good as possible.

One thing to make note of about Web of the Spider is that this is shorter version of the film. Even though the Film Masters version looks superior, you should hold on to the Garagehouse Pictures release as it’s the longer version with Italian language.

For their Blu-ray, Film Masters have gone the same route as their other Blu-ray releases with the audio. This release has the usual English DTS HD Master Audio 2.0 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 track options for this release. I found that the DTS 2.0 track to be much richer and louder on my system. Dialogue, music, and various action sounds were much louder and richer on the DTS track. No issues such as hissing or crackling were detected. English subtitles area available.

As with most Film Masters Blu-ray releases, there are loads of extras for this release.

Samuel M. Sherman provides an archival commentary track for The Bloody Dead.

Stephen Jones and Kim Newman treat us to commentary tracks for both Creature with Blue Hand and Web of the Spider. The two are paired together for both films and cover the two movies with much gusto and enthusiasm. 

Ballyhoo Motion Pictures presents two new documentaries for this release:

A Man of Mystery: Inside the World of Edgar Wallace features author Pete Atkins who delves deep into the background of the popular writer, Edgar Wallace and the films that were made based on his novels.

The other documentary, Kinski Krimis: Inside the Rialto Film Adaptations has C. Courtney Joyner discussing Kinski’s work during the Rialto Films era, when it was at its peak.

Creature with the Blue Hand also includes an original film trailer, plus a recut trailer using restored film elements.

There is also a 2024 trailer of Web of the Spider and an original English trailer for Castle of Blood as part of the supplementals package.

Last, but not least is the usual informative collector’s booklet, where this time Nick Clark provides the liner notes for Creature with the Blue Hand, while Christopher Stewardson provides the liner notes for Web of the Spider.

Stewardson’s essay has a comparison between Web of the Spider and Castle of Blood.

Needless to say, I recommend this release not just because of the overall excellent audio and video quality, but the release has a lot of extras to enjoy, plus Creature with the Blue Hand offers two cuts to boot! Let’s hope for more releases of krimi films down the road!

Creature with the Blue Hand / Web of the Spider

Director – Alfred Vohrer / Antonio Margheriti

Cast- Klaus Kinski / Harald Leipnitz / Anthony Franciosa /Michèle Mercier

Country of Origin- Germany, Italy

Distributor – Film Masters

Number of Discs –2

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date –10/1/2024