Holy Spider
2022, crime, drama, suspense
118 minutes
A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.
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By other critics
8.5
2022-10-02
It is very bleak, though, which makes it a little bit difficult to recommend to your average moviegoer. Still, I think Abbasi has done a really good job with this one. Read more
8.0
2023-01-12
Despite the effective script, the audacious, riveting topic and the dirty depiction of Iran (that you won’t anywhere else), Holy Spider is not a perfect film. Read more
8.0
2022-10-26
If you look up photos of the real Saeed, it’s uncanny how Abbasi is sure to capture his self-assured smile in the courtroom. But more than that, the filmmaker drives home how the real terror lies with Saeed’s certainty that this will all turn out okay in the end. How could it not, for someone just doing what’s expected of him? Read more
6.0
2023-01-11
Rather than creating a fictional heroine, we're left to wonder why the writer/director didn't focus his attention on memorialising one of the real life women who lost their lives at the hands of Hanaei. Read more
5.0
2023-01-10
Nadim Carlsen’s artfully unsoiled cinematography adds an air of suffocating rectitude in a sick machismo manifesto that, alternating strong and fragile sections, piles up crime scenarios with intermittent tension. Holy Spider doesn’t add up to a fully realized thriller. Read more
In other languages
8.0
2023-01-16
Holy Spider is persoonlijk, intens en verontrustend. Regisseur Ali Abbasi brengt het waargebeurde verhaal van de Iraanse seriemoordenaar, die in 2001 verschillende prostituees om het leven bracht, bijzonder confronterend in beeld. Read more
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