With great power comes... a ton of weird crap that you aren't prepared for.
The Spider
is a 2024 horror Spider-Man fan film written and directed by Andy Chen. It involves an alternate scenario in which Peter Parker (Chandler Riggs) gets bitten by a radioactive spider and finds himself with spider-like abilities. Initially starting off as adventurous, the short film quickly takes a very dark turn, due to the effects being far more than what Peter expected...
Entries:
- All Just a Dream: Subverted. After Peter passes out on the floor, Gwen Stacy tries waking him, implying that the prior events were a fever-induced dream. When Peter does wake, he's covered in mucus, signaling that things are about to get a lot worse.
- And I Must Scream: Heavily implied; the last shot of the film is Peter, mid-transformation, with his human eye clearly tearing up as Aunt May screams in the corner. Combined with him isolating himself in his room, it signals that Peter knows what he's becoming, but is ultimately unable to fight his spidery instincts.
- Body Horror: Peter begins to horribly mutate throughout the second half of the short film as the radiation from the spider that bit him goes out of control, causing him to grow multiple eyes on his head and grow two spider-like fangs out of his mouth. By the end of the short film, he has fully mutated into a horrific spider-like abomination, and the results are not pretty.
- The Cameo: Gwen Stacy makes a brief appearance as the classmate who wakes Peter from his mid-class nap and discovers him [[Squick covered in sweat and viscous fluid.]]. J. Jonah Jameson later makes an appearance as a newscaster that Uncle Ben watches in the Parker house. Finally, Mary-Jane appears as the fuel that Peter hunts down in The Stinger.
- Downer Ending: The ending has Peter kill Uncle Ben and (implied) Aunt May as he fully mutates into a spider abomination, with The Stinger showing him beginning to go on a rampage, starting with Mary-Jane Watson.
- Match Cut: Done after Peter passes out on his bedroom floor, cutting to him asleep in class.
- Mood Whiplash: The short film initially starts off as hopeful and adventurous, as Peter discovers he has spider-like powers and excitedly tests his abilities out. Then, he begins to horrifically mutate as a result of the excess radiation, causing the film to quickly nose-dive into horror.
