Holy Spider (2022) on Netflix
NR20221h 56m
Arezoo Rahimi, a journalist from Tehran, arrives in Mashhad to investigate a serial killer preying on street prostitutes addicted to drugs. The press calls him the Spider Killer.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.3/1032,567 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Mashhad, women who work as street prostitutes and are addicted to drugs have been found dead, their bodies left in desolate places on the city's outskirts. The media names the unknown man the Spider Killer. Arezoo Rahimi, a journalist based in Tehran, comes to the city to investigate and joins Sharifi, the editor of a local newspaper, to establish who he is. The killer says he is purging the city for Imam Reza. Relatives of the victims will not talk, and police treat the case with indifference.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Holy Spider (2022)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Iran's Cinema Organization condemned Cannes for giving the Best Actress award to Holy Spider, comparing the film to The Satanic Verses, and the culture minister said Iran had formally protested to France and warned that Iranians involved in the film would be punished.
- Ali Abbasi's film was barred from shooting in Iran, planned for Jordan in early 2020 but delayed by COVID-19, then moved to Turkey in late 2020, where Turkish authorities stalled it; Abbasi said the Iranian government interfered.
- After winning Best Actress at Cannes, Zar Amir Ebrahimi told CNN she had received roughly 200 threats, saying critics judged the film from a trailer alone and blaming Iran's lack of freedom of expression.
- Zar Amir Ebrahimi came onto Holy Spider only as its casting director, and was cast as the film's journalist after the actor hired for the part dropped out.
- The journalist Rahimi was based on a real woman featured in Maziar Bahari's documentary about the case, who covered Saeed Hanaei's trial and wrote that his last words were "this was not our deal", hinting at a deal with authorities.
- Ebrahim Irajzad, director of the 2020 Iranian film Killer Spider about the same murders, accused Ali Abbasi of plagiarism and of dodging Iranian censorship to get Holy Spider made first, saying Abbasi could have shot in Iran by waiting for approval as he did.
- Russia revoked Holy Spider's distribution certificate on 16 May 2023, days after its 11 May release, over content allegedly containing information banned by Russian law.
- Ali Abbasi was a student in Tehran during the 2000–01 murders and was baffled that the conservative response treated Saeed Hanaei as a hero, and that police took so long to catch him.
