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- 2022
- Utopia
- 1 h 58 m
- 2022
- Utopia
- 1 h 58 m
Summary Female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers. As the body count mounts and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to a...
Directed By: Ali Abbasi
Written By: Afshin Kamran Bahrami, Jonas Wagner, Ali Abbasi
- 2022
- Utopia
- 1 h 58 m
- 2022
- Utopia
- 1 h 58 m
Holy Spider
66
6.7
Where to Watch
Summary Female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers. As the body count mounts and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to a...
Directed By: Ali Abbasi
Written By: Afshin Kamran Bahrami, Jonas Wagner, Ali Abbasi
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally favorable
Based on 30 Critic Reviews
66
63% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
30% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
7% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally favorable
Based on 30 Critic Reviews
66
63% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
30% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
7% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
It’s a cracking, effective thriller, powered by uneasiness, and made all the more potent by the recent death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old killed in police custody after being detained for violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code for women.
Holy Spider’s rendition of this grisly tale is powerful and precise, commendably lacking the sensationalistic tone of some serial killer movies.
User Score
Generally favorable
Based on 31 User Ratings
6.7
74% Positive
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
13% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
13% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally favorable
Based on 31 User Ratings
6.7
74% Positive
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
13% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
13% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
I am an Iranian, and what the movie showed is a bitter reality, that superstitions like the Quran and some impure people named "Akhund" were planted in people's heads, and I can definitely say that something like this really happened, so much so that people turned a blind eye to the words. Some people who say anything just for their own benefit, listened to the fact that if someone does something that is against their beliefs, that person has no right to live. That human rights organization that claims to protect the rights of the people of the world, where is it? Here, they are killing people **** then they say that he died due to underlying disease or even committed suicide, while they kill them for their own personal benefit.
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Abbasi has made an Iranian noir which, even though it dares to poke around the spiritual capital of Iran with its largest mosque in the world, isn’t an assault on the Iranian government per se, but a crime thriller which shows how far fundamentalist morality can be twisted and how banal the face of evil really is.
Holy Spider trickily manages to bridge the gap between social realism and exploitation cinema in a way that hints at how both are rooted in a similar place of gritty authenticity.
As a neo-noir Holy Spider offers a tightly-woven procedural crime thriller, bolstered by a superb central performance from Amir-Ebrahimi and gorgeous, lurid aesthetics. A steadier hand marshalling its themes and a more disciplined third act might have tipped Abbasi’s third feature into being something truly special: as it stands we are left a very solid, smart and satisfying thriller.
There are several ways to make a serial killer movie, and in the sometimes compelling and sometimes repellent Holy Spider, filmmaker Ali Abbasi has chosen all of them. At once exploitative and contemplative, thrilling and disgusting, the film makes a bloody mess of itself before coming close to solving its own case.
It’s not the first film to try to disguise its titillation at violence, in particular against women, with blunt, larger themes. But when those themes are about the structures that enable that violence, the whole enterprise just feels repellent.
I am an Iranian, and what the movie showed is a bitter reality, that superstitions like the Quran and some impure people named "Akhund" were planted in people's heads, and I can definitely say that something like this really happened, so much so that people turned a blind eye to the words. Some people who say anything just for their own benefit, listened to the fact that if someone does something that is against their beliefs, that person has no right to live. That human rights organization that claims to protect the rights of the people of the world, where is it? Here, they are killing people **** then they say that he died due to underlying disease or even committed suicide, while they kill them for their own personal benefit.
Report
Um filme rodado em Teerã, que lembra os bons momentos de Asghar Farhadi ("A separação"), contando uma história real de um assassino de prostitutas que, pasmem, é aclamado pela população, pela mídia e pela polícia, tudo em nome do tal Alá.
É realmente chocante perceber que grande parte do roteiro é baseado em fatos reais. A princípio, parece que os personagens, em especial os masculinos, são todos caricatos e forçados, mas fico imaginando pelos relatos e registros que, infelizmente, é bem provável que suas personalidades misóginas não estejam tão longe assim a realidade.
O filme já inicia com uma personagem aleatória como vítima desse monstro, e sua identidade não importa tanto, pois a mulher aqui é tratada de forma genérica, passando superficialmente pela vida que carrega atrás de si.
A partir daí o filme foca na jornalista que vai cobrir o caso, e é agoniante como o fato dela fazer um trabalho solitário, hospedando-se em um simples hotel e sofrendo os olhares machistas que a questionam a todo instante (está desacompanhada? É uma puta?). É de embrulhar o estômago.
A complacência com que a polícia trata do caso, como se o assassino estivesse na verdade cumprindo uma função social plausível, é meio chocante de assistir, especialmente considerando que o vi justamente durante a semana do dia internacional da mulher.
O roteiro é econômico para um filme de investigação policial, e o encontro com o assassino sem desenvolvimento algum. A impressão que passa é que precisaria de um trato mais acurado para tornar a história mais visceral, mais no sentido do desenvolvimento de um thriller policial mesmo, porque em termos de mostrar a submissão feminina nos países do leste foi muito bem sucedido.
Prepara-se para uma enxurrada de indignação perante a desumanidade e objetificação aos corpos femininos. O final, por mais que justo, não deixa de passar a sensação de iminente perigo, de que foi feito algo somente para justificar-se à pressão social, meio que contrariado. Ainda há muito o que lutar, e a globalização do movimento feminista já é uma tendência imparável, com toda a carga multiculturalista que ela carrega. Filme ótimo para discutir a fragmentação as identidades e as relações de poder de gênero que insistem em dar as caras, mesmo em sociedades ocidentais. Ou você acha que em sociedades mais liberais não há misoginia?
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7 stars
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Report
In 'Holy Spider,' a gripping thriller à la 'Zodiac' about a serial killer who lives a normal life with his family in Mashhad, Iran, Ali Abbasi makes the controversial decision of incorporating the point of view of the misogynistic killer. It's somewhat problematic that the journalist investigating the case, played by Zar Amir Ebrahimi, gets sidelined for almost half of the movie in favor of the killer. Fortunately, the way the film tackles themes like the cult of personality, corruption, and extremism gives insight into how rooted social problems in Iran are. Oh, and the atmosphere the music creates is also noteworthy.
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Production Company
Profile Pictures,
ONE TWO Films,
Nordisk Film Production,
Wild Bunch International,
Why Not Productions,
Film i Väst,
ZDF/Arte,
Arte France Cinéma,
ARTE,
Danmarks Radio (DR),
Sveriges Television (SVT),
The Imaginarium,
Rotor Film,
Det Danske Filminstitut,
Eurimages,
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,
Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA),
Svenska Filminstitutet (SFI),
Deutscher Filmförderfonds (DFFF),
Nordisk Film & TV-Fond,
Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein
Release Date Oct 28, 2022
Duration 1 h 58 m
Awards
Danish Film Awards (Robert)
• 11 Wins & 16 Nominations
German Film Awards
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
Bodil Awards
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
