THE SCARLET SPIDER

SCARLET- SPIDER- With the recent release of Spider-Man 3 the Fan Film community has been feverishly cranking out Spider-Man based Fan Films. But this particular Spidey flick by Directors Gale Benning and Kevin Sheen offers up something a little different...This film doesn't feature the continuing exploits of wall-crawler Peter Parker, instead the focus of this film is none other than Ben Reily, a cloned version of Peter Parker created by Dr.Otto Octavius. With genes identical to Parker Ben Reily thinks like Parker, acts like Parker, shares the same powers, and holds the sam things near and dear to his heart that Peter does. But it seems that identical DNA isn't the only thing that Reily has in common with the real Peter Parker. With Parker is jail, framed for the murder of Gwen Stacy, Reily decides to pick up where Peter left off and becomes a brand new webslinging crimefighter, The Scarlet-Spider! When flashbacks of his creation become more and more vivid, Reily realizes the true secret behind his creation, a secret that will endanger the life of Reily's beloved Mary Jane Watson, and pit him in battle against the very same man that created him, Doctor Octopus! This film gets props right off the bat, simply because it features The Scarlet-Spider as the main hero, pretty damn cool if you ask me. Okay, now on to the REAL nitty gritty...The film's script is very well written, fueled by the power of Reily's inner monologue, giving you a true insight into the tormented mind of the cloned crimefighter. Kevin Sheen, who plays both Reily and The Scarlet-Spider in the film hits the bullseye with a great performance reminiscent of Toby Maguire's take on Peter Parker. Akward, geeky, and tortured, Sheen literally becomes Ben Reily in every sense. Lisa Bates also puts forth a noteworthy performance in the film starring as Mary Jane Watson. Bates is sweet, innocent, and believeably sincere, everything that MJ Watson has to be, making her the perfect choice for the role. Besides great performances from the film's main cast, Scarlet-Spider is sprinkled with just the right ammount of comic book style action, aided along with a few well done displays of special effects. Funny enough, it's the film's minimal effects that shine brightest in the film. The flashbacks of Reily's creation score highest, while Doctor Octopus's tentacles prove to be a bit too ambitious. You guys sure as Hell get points for heart and effort though. I can only imagine how hard it must be to make Ol' Doc Ock's terrible tentacles come to life. So, to sum up..the film's winning script, solid performances, and plenty of heart, make Scarlet-Spider a well rounded, well executed, and just plain entertaining Fan Film. Scarlet-Spider is brought to you by the web-heads over at Pixelution Studios, Check out the film HERE and enter Scarlet Spider into the search bar.