A Spider-Man fan film from Andy Chen and Locust Garden Pictures shows just how much of a monster Peter Parker could have turned into if he didn’t become Spider-Man and was more of a Man-Spider.
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The Spider, a Spider-Man horror fan film
When you think about it, Peter Parker lucked out when it came to his powers. He has enhanced strength, speed, and agility, along with being able to stick to most surfaces and a Spider-Sense that warns him of incoming danger. Besides that, he’s always been more of a man rather than an arachnid. But given that the horror genre exists and that spiders are creepy as all hell, it was only a matter of time until someone decided to make Spider-Man, but horrifying.
Directed by Andy Chen and starring Chandler Riggs (The Walking Dead), The Spider sees Peter Parker being bitten by an irradiated spider and suffering from the bite it gave him. Symptoms include excreting webbing from his hands, vomiting blood and teeth, transforming into a Man-Spider monstrosity, and having an absolutely ravenous appetite.
After coming into contact with a couple of muggers and driving them away with his new web power, Peter returns home and comes to find he can also stick to walls. Initially, things seem awesome for the young lad as he goes out on a nighttime excursion on the city rooftops, finding himself leaping great distances and doing flips as he moves from one building to the next.
But things aren’t merry for long. Once the teenager returns to his room, he immediately begins to vomit blood and teeth and later passes out in the middle of a class. Soon, paramedics are called in to treat him in an ambulance, but things go awry as the vehicle crashes. Peter’s uncle Ben is seen watching the news of the ambulance crash and his nephew flits by behind him, attempting to remain undetected but failing as Ben notices him. Ben then enters his ward’s room and later, Aunt May enters his room to try and find where her family went off to.
The sight that greets her is a grim one: Ben is dead, his body lifeless and being devoured by Peter, who has now mutated into a spider/human abomination. The camera cuts to black as the poor woman screams in terror as her nephew turns to face her, multiple eyes now staring at her instead of just two and fangs protruding from his mouth. An after-credits scene shows a woman running away from something at night. That “something” is Peter, now an unrecognizable, grotesque, hulking Spider-Monster who’s got a taste for human flesh and wants more. Lots more.
Reception, similarities and sources of inspiration
What makes this fan film great is that it doesn’t waste time and quickly turns things dark. Sure, there’s some initial joy from the kid as he’s running across rooftops, but that’s forgotten about once his mutation progresses. His vile appearance is the exact inverse of what we envision whenever we think of Spider-Man.
The one we all know is kid-friendly (most of the time, anyway), cracks jokes, and has a recognizable red and blue outfit. This Peter Parker loses all of his humanity and the only thing that’s left is hunger and the instinct to hunt whatever unfortunate prey that attracts his attention. He never wanted any of this to happen; he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and his loved ones ended up dead because of it, adding to the tragedy.
Viewers have voiced how well-made this project is and how sad things turned out for poor Peter. Some have also said they’d love to see another film where villains like Kraven the Hunter and the Green Goblin are the heroes who hunt down the Spider-Monster seen at the end (I’m not gonna lie, that’s a pretty wicked idea).
The Spider is a bit similar to Edge of Spider-Verse #4, a comic issue that’s also a horrific take on Spidey. The story involves Patton Parnel (another version of Peter) being bitten by a radioactive spider and becoming a monster. However, unlike the fan film, Patton wholly embraces his mutation and revels in eating any living, breathing creature he comes across. Patton also acts as a stalker towards Sara Jane, his next-door neighbor, and is abused by his uncle Ted, but the guy was already a creep and an abuse victim before he came into contact with that spider.
Given that this version of Peter is messed up in the head, he ends up devouring his bully and even webs up animals and humans in his room, saving them as snacks for later. Not only that, he keeps his uncle tied to his bed and bites him, laying multiple spider eggs into his body, which soon hatch and escape from his body. Thankfully, this character got put down by one of Spider-Man’s villains before he could eat anyone else, though he does manage to traumatize Sara Jane in the end by biting her and laying eggs within her body like he did with his abusive uncle, which soon hatch and swarm the young girl.
Peter’s also been known to occasionally transform into a Man-Spider in his comics and TV shows, complete with a spider’s head with multiple eyes, six arms with clawed hands and feet, and hair all over him. He also can’t speak and his intelligence takes a major hit, too. Thankfully, these transformations don’t last long, and ol’ web-head returns to his normal self in no time.
Andy Chen mentioned in an interview that he saw Peter transform into Man-Spider in Spider-Man: The Animated Series (awesome show, you ought to watch it) when he was younger and given the monstrosity that Peter becomes in his fan film, it makes sense that he took a bit of inspiration from this old show for his idea. The Fly and Toxic Avenger movies, along with symptoms of radiation poisoning, were also sources of inspiration for how Man-Spider should look; basically, an ugly, flesh-covered spider was the idea. Chen also mentioned researching different versions of Spidey in the Multiverse, so he probably came across Patton Parnel at some point.
There are also a couple of references to other Spidey characters. One of the actresses in this film looks like the comic version of Gwen Stacy, one of Spider-Man’s most well-known love interests and the real identity of Spider-Gwen/Ghost-Spider. A poster in Peter’s bedroom also has “fusion is salvation” written on it, with a black figure with big white eyes above that message, a clear nod to Venom. It doesn’t add anything to the story, but it does hint that this is Spider-Man, but not Marvel’s version of him.
“Heroes gone horrific” is something people enjoy and that can extend to other comic characters, not just the web-slinger. Remember that movie Brightburn, which was billed as a darker take on Superman? That didn’t do quite well, but with a few rewrites and more feedback from test audiences, it could be something that lives up to the description it was given. Maybe one day, we’ll see more darker takes on the fellas in capes and not just in the comics they originate from. Until then, we’ll have The Spider to keep us up at night.
