What’s scarier: The story of a merciless serial killer like Hannibal Lecter who, while terrifyingly staged, didn’t actually exist? Or a film about a real person who brutally murdered 16 (!) sex workersto “cleanse” the streets of his hometown of them?
After Holy Spider by director Ali Abbasi celebrated its world premiere in Cannes and took the breath away from the dismayed audience several times, there can only be one answer to the question: The real case is more frightening. Because the serial killer thriller shows more than a single man’s murderous fantasies. In it, whole sections of society become perpetrators.
The true story behind Holy Spider is crueler than any fiction
The film, which received several minutes of standing applause after its premiere, is based on a Series of murders that took place in Mashhad from 2000 to 2001, the holiest city in Iran. Saeed Hanaei killed at least 16 prostitutes, citing his religious beliefs as a motive. He didn’t want to continue to watch the alleged moral decay in the important pilgrimage site of Shiite Islam.
Check out the trailer for the serial killer thriller Holy Spider here:
Holy Spider – Trailer (English subtitles) HD
The case was filmed in the 2003 documentary And Along Came a Spider. The graphic novel The Spider of Mashhad* followed in 2017. But the brutality and scale of the crimes aren’t the only reason the killings went around the world. The so-called “Spider Killer” had fans. Extremely conservative Iranians openly celebrated him for his “elimination” of supposedly godless women, and there are even said to have been copycats. This is exactly where Abbasis Film comes in.
The thriller about a godly serial killer is a real scandal – in more ways than one
The emotional core of the film is the journalist Rahimi (Zahra Amir Ebrahimi), who comes to Mashhad to shed light on the spider murders. Because the police are investigating, but have not yet found anything useful. Rahimi thinks that’s on purpose. Finally In the eyes of many, sex workers are considered worthless and impure. How deep the misogynist structures in Mashhad really go becomes clear when the murderer Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani) is caught with Rahimi’s help.
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Zahra Amir Ebrahimi in Holy Spider
Border director Ali Abbasi doesn’t shy away from keeping the camera on as the spider killer strangles his victims in what appears to be a sacred mission. But the most unbearable of Holy Spider lies in what happens after the murders. The smiling faces that congratulate Saeed on his deeds. The son who proudly tells that his father is a hero. The silent pain on Rahimi’s face, who doesn’t even seem surprised anymore. Holy Spider is dark, violent and hard to take. But it’s worth it.
At the world premiere, Abbasi spoke of a “big day for Iranian film. Now there’s at least one movie where women own bodies. In which they don’t have to go to bed with their headscarves on“. For the director is Holy Spider an important political statement that should not only cause heated discussions in Iran. Because the reactionary, misanthropic ideology, the open misogyny shown in the film, still exists 20 years after the spider murders – worldwide.
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What do you find more disturbing: fictional or real serial killer movies?