Fresh on the heels of the resurgence of super hero films comes a new budding phenomenon in cinema: the wannabe-hero film. James Gunn‘s Super is one such film portraying a vengeful victim of crime and his pledge to clean up the streets and take power back from the villainous foes who threaten his city.

A straight-laced Frank D’Arbo (played by Rainn Wilson) loses his wife, who runs off to be with a smooth drug dealer named Jock (played by Kevin Bacon). Having lost the only thing he cares about in the world, he attempts to get his woman back and fight crime by transforming himself into The Crimson Bolt. With the help of an unlikely sidekick, The Crimson Bolt looks to take Jock down for good.

If you’re up on TV and films, you’re probably thinking the plot and concept sound a lot like the film KickAss and the TV show, The Cape. We’d say you’re right. The only thing differentiating this one? It’s meant to be a dark comedy, so the jokes may be a bit more mature than those of KickAss and will probably come in larger numbers and at a much faster pace than anything that’s been done on The Cape.

The film was shot in Shreveport, Louisiana and was completed on a very low budget, with all the actors getting paid the Screen Actors Guild minimum. Despite the film’s low budget, there are some serious special effects in this film, the likes of which have rarely been seen before. Prepare yourself. The following is crazy.

Kinda makes the movie worth watching just to see how much further than that they can go, right?

Are we really witnessing the birth of a force in the movie industry with unlikely heroes taking center stage with limited skills/superpowers? If so, how long before people begin attempting to mimic the stories they see in such films?

These questions and others should be answered when Super is released on April 1.

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