7/12 ForReel Score | 3/5 Stars

There has always been a mass interest in true crime stories, but over the past few years, there seems to have been an explosion of films depicting the murders of real people. It is important to note that most of this entertainment is not 100% factual in their retelling of events, which is why they use words like “based on a true story” or “inspired by true events”. Even so, some filmmakers are more truthful than others, which raises the question of how true the story can be when it ceases to be honest to the factual events. Director Ali Abbasi (Border) walks that line with his latest film Holy Spider, which follows the murders of sixteen women in the holy city of Mashhad, Iran between 2000 and 2001.

Abbasi is candid about taking artistic liberties with the story. For example, the central character of Holy Spider is Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, White Paradise), a journalist that goes undercover as a sex worker in search of the murderer. Her character is heavily fictionalized and in reality did no such thing. Rahimi functions more as a conduit to bring the audience closer to the story. While I'm not saying Abbasi shouldn't have made up her character, the fictionalization of her character makes me wonder why she isn’t more complex, or why there isn’t more effort to demonstrate how important it is for her to be working on this project.

Despite this distraction in character development, Amir-Ebrahimi is intoxicating in the role. You would have never suspected that she was not the original choice to play Rahimi, but rather, she’s the casting director who took the helm after the original actor dropped out a week prior to filming. As the narrative began to drag, Amir-Ebrahimi maintained my attention. It’s only because of the fractured story that her character never seemed to be fully developed. I would have preferred to know more about Rahimi's history and expand on her investigative method.

Instead, the film devotes a great deal of time to establishing the character of the killer, displaying a lot of time spent with his family. In terms of his parenting ability, Saeed appears to be a kind, loving man who will goof off with his daughter during morning prayer. His rage bleeds through that compassionate exterior every so often. Saeed appears like he is about to rip off the head of his son after he gets a ball kicked at his head. Mehdi Bajestani (Davaran) captures his quiet fury so well. There’s a constant storm brewing in his mind that breaks free when in close quarters with his victims and a void in Saeed's life; a lack of purpose, which leads him to act out what he believes to be God's will - clearing the streets of those who he believes to be polluting his holy city.

There is a great struggle between Holy Spider's tone and its meaning. The film plays it too safe when it comes to discussing the conflicts between the morality of society and its view on poverty. As a result, the narrative never goes beyond a surface level discussion of the men's entitlement and the power they wield over women, with many men in the film - a police officer leading the case included - believing that these women deserve what they received. It almost reaches the level of humanizing the victims, beyond being poor opium-dependent sex workers, but a great deal of the graphic imagery impeeds that.

For example, I found it distasteful to show the audience what appears to be a performance of real fellatio. The act could have easily been implied rather than explicitly demonstrated. In addition, many of the murders are depicted as these emotionally taxing long takes. There is an instance in the film that is particularly hard to watch, in which a woman is horrifically punched over and over until her jaw is broken. The film is caught halfway between being a socially conscious noir and a horror film from the viewpoint of a serial killer. The allure and interest I felt at the beginning of the film was lost about half way through. I appreciated the way they took the time to show the trial and chilling interviews at the end of the film, which ultimately made much of the film's labor feel worthwhile.

Despite the concerns raised about misogyny, religion, and mass admiration for an immoral figure, Holy Spider lacks confidence in deciding what type of film it wants to be. At times too bleak and others quite shy. Zar Amir-Ebrahimi and Mehdi Bajestani’s performance save the film and make it worth the watch. There’s just a desperate want for the film to have a better focus on its critique of religious fundamentalism and a clearer vision of who’s story it is.

SLIFF 2022 | MOVIE REVIEW: "Holy Spider"; A Bleak True-Crime Story