Holy Spider

A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad, chasing a serial killer known as the Spider Killer, a predator focused on sex workers, driven by the belief that he is cleansing the streets of sinners.

Holy Spider is based off/inspired by the true events of a serial killer who murdered 16 sex workers in 2000-2001 in the city of Mashhad, Iran. It follows the killer, some of his victims, and a woman reporter as she moves through a world where it is dangerous to be a women, even without the killer currently haunting the nighttime streets.

The film is a dramatized true-crime tale, but it also somewhat refreshingly lacks the glitz and flourishes and pulpy innuendos that are commonly found in most American True Crime productions.

Also, interestingly, while set in Iran, the film wasn’t filmed there.

Ali Abbasi, the writer/director was born there, but moved to Europe, and while he reportedly wanted to shoot in Iran, he wasn’t allowed, so he filmed in Jordan instead. This is probably for the best, as the story highlights not just the misogyny of one man, but of society as a whole, specifically Iranian society. This pointed critique is so clear, I have a hard time believing it would be allowed in modern day Iran, as current events with the Morality Police are showing. Shit, it’s seems like it’s barely allowed in America…

The status quo is illustrated early on, the first time we see the main character as she tries to check into a hotel. She is almost turned away when the desk clerk realizes that she’s a single female traveling alone. It’s only when she produces her journalist id that he relents, but even then he immediately pivots to scolding her, saying that her head scarf is showing too much hair, that she shouldn’t be traveling alone, blah, blah, blah. It’s just the first of many such encounters, a constant barrage that she must endure as she tries to save lives, lives of a class of people that not just her society hates, but the wider world too. She can only do this by finding the dangerous killer herself, which means putting herself at risk, all while, with each new body, more and more of the media, more and more people on the street, laud the killer as a hero.

It’s really great. Tense. Tough. Dark. Riveting.

While never excessive or exploitive, at least by “Western” standards, Holy Spider is unwilling to flinch away from the brutal reality of the victims daily lives, or the world they inhabit. It’s a fantastic film, but a visceral and brutal one, difficult to enjoy in the moment on occasion, but also very easy to admire throughout, as it showcases some fantastic direction and performances, especially from Mehdi Bajestani as the killer, and most especially from Zar Amir-Ebrahimi as the reporter.

Holy Spider is one of my favorites of the year.