Pedro Pascal Had A Small Role In This Bizarre Spider-Man Riff With A Horror Twist

Starring in a low-budget horror movie has almost become a rite of passage for aspiring actors. While he didn't exactly join the ranks of stars who got their start in low-budget horror because he previously had one-off roles on shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Touched by an Angel," the now-beloved actor Pedro Pascal's first movie role was in the bizarre Cinemax horror movie "Earth vs. the Spider." 

In "Earth vs. the Spider," shy comic book fan Quentin (Devon Gummersall) injects himself with a serum derived from spiders, hoping to be like his favorite character, The Arachnid Avenger. Instead of getting powers like The Arachnid Avenger (a clear riff on Spider-Man), Quentin gets horrific powers and mutates, eventually turning into a human-spider hybrid that looks more like Jeff Goldblum at the end of "The Fly" than anything that could ever have "Your Friendly Neighborhood" in its title. Early in his transformation, he tries to do a bit of crime-fighting and takes on a goth guy in a convenience store. That goth guy is played by Pascal, and he doesn't last long before Quentin uses his newfound spider-strength to throw the guy through a table, seemingly killing him. Pascal fans only get to see him for a moment, but it's a pretty fun moment at least.

"Earth vs. the Spider" came out fairly shortly after Pedro Pascal played a goth character and created his own Satanic language on an episode of "NYPD Blue," so maybe casting directors just really saw him as a stereotypical goth circa 2001. We don't get to see him for long in the scene, but he does have some pretty fantastic eyeliner and wild black hair sticking up in every direction. Sometimes it's fun to see actors we know and love now in unexpected places, and "Earth vs. the Spider" is pretty unexpected for any actor. It has more than a few strikes against it, taking it from standard TV-movie fare to something that's (unfortunately) unforgettable. Dan Aykroyd plays a detective, and he plays it completely straight. The low budget meant that, outside of the genuinely gnarly spider prosthetics, the effects are terrible. One of Quentin's powers is shooting webs from spinnerets on his abdomen that I can only describe as a "stomach anus." 

"Mystery Science Theater 3000" tackled the original 1958 "Earth vs. the Spider" back in 1991, and while the Cinemax version isn't a remake and it basically just lifted the title, it would be a blast to see that kind of riffing on this totally bonkers made-for-TV film. Just imagine the "The Mandalorian" jokes!