The four-letter name of God, the last and final hundredth name of God in the Hasidic studies, is being uttered, one letter at a time, each corresponding with a murder. Lonnrot becomes so ensnared in the intrigue that he snaps at the bait and seals his own demise, at the hands of the ever-clever, if not overdramatic Red Scharlach. .
Directed by Paul Miller, the short film Spiderweb is based on Death and the Compass and for the most part, sticks very closely to its inspiration. The film is done in black and white, and keeps the swift pace that the short story embodies. The characters are introduced quickly, and the events culminate almost as soon as they begin. Spiderweb takes off on its own course, however, in its presentation. Paul Miller creates a very heady experiment in film noir, playfully toying with stereotypes and old detective film standards. The black and white canvas alone forces the viewer back to the days of movies like the Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, and the simple good guy/bad guy relationship that movies from the golden age of Hollywood held nearest and dearest. Lonnrot is the absolute end-all ideal of the sophisticated detective in Miller's interpretation. He is intelligent, and thinks on his feet, not allowing a case to be solved simply, but instead, looks for the most complex, and interesting hypothesis. His relationship with Inspector Treviranus is that of the old cliché; the dumb, flat-foot cop and the brilliant detective. Red Scharlach is every bit the embodiment of cartoonish evil, complete with a cheesy accent, and an eye patch. The murders are committed behind the curtain, as it were, depicted to the viewer only in shadows on the wall, looking much like old films such as Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (1919), Nosfaratu (1922), and countless other nefarious movies from the time period. Both murders in the short story are described exactly the same way, the victims discovered lying prone, both of them dead, " a deep knife wound had split his breast.