Holy Spider
We were delighted to previously screen this film but we have no current plans to screen it again. If you'd like to watch it in the cinema, consider a private hire to watch it with friends. That does rely on the film being available for private purchase.
Film details
| Film Title | Holy Spider |
|---|---|
| Suitability | |
| Genre | |
| Length | 116mins |
| Year | 2022 |
| Country | Denmark, Germany, Sweden, France |
| Director | Ali Abbasi |
| Actors | Mehdi Bajestani, Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, Arash Ashtiani |
| Language | Persian |
| AKA | Ankaboote Moghaddas |
| Showings |
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.
An intensely stylish and appropriately troubling film, with stomach-churning murders and a pacy first half that’s reminiscent of David Fincher’s Zodiac.
★★★★
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.
★★★★
Saeed Hanaei, the real-life serial killer reimagined in Ali Abbasi’s tense and convincing procedural, believed that God was behind his grand mission to rid his city of prostitutes. But in Holy Spider, the devil is in those devastating details.
★★★★
