Sony released a new Spider-Man short film titled “The Spider Within,” on YouTube for everyone to watch March 27. They did this partially because the third film in the Spider-Verse series “Beyond the Spider-Verse,” was initially scheduled to release March 27 but was pushed back due to the writer and actor strike earlier this year.  

But this short film tackles mature and profound issues such as anxiety and mental health excellently as well as the consequences of suppressing and not talking about these issues. 

 This short film in my opinion offers more quality and substance then say something like the new Kung Fu Panda 4 movie. I say this because this short contains a complete and meaningful story and message, mostly pertaining to the mental health of people who don’t talk about what’s bothering them as can be seen at the start of the short film.  

I think that this a beautiful and quite frankly a much needed message for teens now-a-days, as despite mental health being more valued in recent than it has been historically, it’s still not given the proper attention it should be, especially for teenage boys, as they are more encouraged to keep their emotions pent up and to not talk about feelings.  

 This short film is about the main character of the Spider-Verse movies, “Miles Morales.” Miles arrives home after a long day of being Spider-Man and is clearly very distraught with his life. This can be further seen when he gets inside his house and sees that his dad had planned a horror movie night with pizza and ice cream with Miles, but Miles is far too in his own head and denies this wholesome moment with his dad. 

With that denial the message of the short can start to be clear, “If you got something really bothering you, you got to open up to the people in your life, or else you’ll be eaten alive by anxiety and fear.” This can be seen by Miles being tormented by a dark monstruous version of himself throughout the majority of the short.  

One truly amazing aspect of this film, however, was its rather unexpected but quite effective horror elements. Miles is tormented in most of the film by a creepily animated dark version of himself that eventually turns into a giant horrifying spider that chases Miles into a panic attack. This horror is very well executed through this shorts use of audio design, music, themes and especially animation.  

If you haven’t already watched this short, I could not recommend it more to anyone, but I would especially recommend it to teens. But remember if sometimes life feels like a bit too much to handle on your own, never be afraid to open up to people, cause if you don’t all those anxieties and fears will consume you.