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26th May 2023

New Spider-Man movie was influenced by incredible horror classic

Simon Kelly

Nobody was expecting that.

Nobody could have expected the cultural impact that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse would have on cinema.

With its incredible visuals and creative art-style, the animated 2018 flick took the world by storm, winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and has become one of the most-loved superhero movies over the last decade.

All of which makes us extremely excited for the upcoming sequel, Across the Spider-Verse.

JOE sat down with writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who told us about a very surprising link between the upcoming movie and a classic horror flick.

Giving nothing away, the duo said the 1991 horror Silence of the Lambs had a big influence on the ending of Across the Spider-Verse.

“We definitely discussed that movie a lot while we were working on the ending of this film,” said Miller. “Trying to tell a sophisticated story that the audience can follow and be surprised by is really challenging and takes a lot of careful honing and crafting to get it to work and that that one was really hard.”

We’re not sure if any Chianti-sipping cannibals are going to pop up in the upcoming flick, but we’re very excited to see whatever link there is between the two films.

Across the Spider-Verse sees Miles Morales and Gwen Stacey team up to save the Spider-people from a new villain called The Spot, all the while at odds with the Spider-Society led by Irish Mexican Spider-Man Miguel O’Hara.

“You can tell them too much and you can tell them too little and too much is boring and too little is confusing and so it took quite a few runs at it to get the balance right,” added Lord.

“Go see the Spider-verse, it’s like Silence of the Lambs for families!”

You can watch the full interview with Phil Lord and Chris Miller below.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse slings into Irish cinemas on June 1.

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