‘Holy Spider’ Review: Ali Abbasi’s True Crime Thriller Is One of the Most Haunting Films of the Year

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Never shying away from brutality, 'Holy Spider' can prove to be a tough watch for many but is worth a look.

Holy Spider, the latest film from Border director Ali Abbasi tackles the shocking, surreal, and often infuriating true story around serial killer Saeed Hanaei. It’s far from an easy watch, and many viewers may find the content within the film incredibly hard to stomach, but because of Abbasi's confidence as a filmmaker paired with the two central performances, Holy Spider is without a doubt, one of the most haunting films of the year.

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Holy Spider opens with an Iranian single mother and sex worker, whose shift ends abruptly after being picked up and strangled to death by Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani), who is nicknamed “The Spider Killer.” From there, we are introduced to Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), a journalist visiting the Iranian city of Mashhad, who is investigating Saeed’s murders and bringing justice to the sex workers on the city streets. Rahimi is often looked down upon, she’s reprimanded for showing too much hair, getting a simple hotel room is a struggle, and only a few seem to be taking the case seriously. We also look into Saeed’s family life, and his relationship with his teenage son Ali (Mesbah Taleb), who idolizes him.

Ali Abbasi clearly wanted to forgo any sense of subtly or symbolism with Holy Spider, one would really have to not be paying any attention to the movie in order to not see what Abbasi has to say as a writer and a director. Abbasi is fixated on making the film feel as grounded and realistic as possible, with both Rahimi and Saeed serving as the eyes and ears of the audience. Abbasi never cuts away from showing the graphic detail of the killings and at times can prove to be a bit too much for some. Obviously, the audience wants to see what will happen, especially those who don’t know the true story behind the film, but at times comes at the expense of how much one can stomach. Abbasi has had an interesting career as a filmmaker, he's dabbled in horror with Shelley, and contemporary fantasy in Border, and next year he'll be one of the directors behind HBO's highly anticipated The Last of Us series. With Holy Spider, Abbasi seems to be taking influences from David Fincher's work, particularly Zodiac, Se7en, and interestingly enough The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. He has all the makings of one of the next big auteur filmmakers, and Holy Spider is proof, especially when looking at Abbasi's clear vision for the film.

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Without a doubt, Holy Spider’s themes of religious extremism and blatant sexism are important, the film isn’t shy about its anger, particularly in the courtroom scenes where it looks like Saeed might be let off the hook entirely, for doing right by God and Iran. It is nearly impossible to not have some kind of emotional reaction when watching these scenes take place and while they may not contain any violence, the repulsion is still there. A lot of this can be credited to Medhi Bajestani’s outstanding performance as Saeed, he’s chilling in the role, and creates discomfort and disgust in every single scene he’s in. While we do get a look inside Saeed’s personal life, Abbasi, thankfully, stays far, far away from anything that would come across as humanizing him or feeling some sort of pity. In one of the best villainous performances of the year, Bajestani’s impact will be ingrained into viewers’ brains, long after the credits have rolled. It's a daunting task all on its own to center a film around such a heinous figure, and one that can easily attract plenty of backlash if done in certain ways. Bajestani never loses his way in his acting, even in scenes showing Saeed playing with his kids or going on a picnic with his family, illicit a sense of concern and unease.

Zara Amir Ebrahimi is equally impressive in the role of Rahimi, despite the fact that her character is entirely fictional, Ebrahimi’s performance paired with the writing and direction, felt like the perfect solution for portraying such a story that can prove to be a tough sell when just focusing on someone as heartless and deranged as the Spider Killer. There’s not too much to the character of Rahimi, but that is clearly the intent, she’s not being used as a prop, but for someone the audience can find some sort of solace with. Ebrahimi is a natural in her delivery, she breathes more life into this character than what was likely required from her, and without her, the film could have very easily fallen apart.

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Holy Spider has also attracted quite a bit of controversy, some of it may feel warranted concerning its depiction of violence, and at times the film's brutality overshadows the messages within the movie. An argument can be made, and likely has already been made, that perhaps the film might've steered clear from this kind of criticism if it opted not for its killer to be directly drawn from a real-life figure, and instead was more fictionalized, especially since the film opts to show the murders. There are multiple prolonged scenes portraying Saeed's murders, and while each scene is haunting in its own right, it is in this area that Ali Abbasi could have shown more restraint, especially since cutting out one or two of these scenes wouldn't have taken away from the film's overall message. The film already moves at a solid enough pace, never wasting any time, even the shocking opening to the film set the stage for the statements that Abbasi wants to say about the mistreatment of sex workers, particularly in Iran.

Even with some questionable choices, Holy Spider still packs a powerful punch, particularly in its third act, and one of the most disturbing final scenes you'll see all year that feels like the perfect summation of the past two hours. Ali Abbasi clearly has an exciting future as a filmmaker, and it'll be interesting to see where he goes next in his career. It can prove to be a very difficult watch for many, but it is one that, mostly, makes it worth the viewing in the end.

Rating: B+

Holy Spider opens on October 28.

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