75
If the first half of the film shies away from the cheap thrills of its serial killer story, the pointed banality of its final chapters proves as horrifying this genre ever gets.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
58
Overall it seems Abbasi got caught between the social righteousness dictates of the “message movie” and pure amorality of what, disturbingly so, often makes for great genre cinema.
80
Screen Daily by Fionnuala Halligan
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.
67
The Playlist by Jihane Bousfiha
As a straight-forward thriller, Holy Spider checks off all the boxes that make it an intriguing watch: it maintains a tense tone and has a gripping plot, it transforms into a courtroom drama halfway into its run, and features gritty and stylish visuals.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
It’s far from subtle filmmaking, but Holy Spider is equal parts gripping and disturbing, and not always for the squeamish.
80
An intense and gripping dramatization that, a few liberties apart, does justice to a disturbing true story.
60
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Abbasi undoubtedly conveys the brutal attitudes which create victimhood.
80
Abbasi offered a brilliantly leftfield perspective on immigration and otherness with his 2018 debut Border, and his follow-up takes no prisoners in his critique of Iranian society’s built-in misogyny and fake piety.
80
Holy Spider shines a light into the murky corners of a society that emboldens its aggressors. In that sense, the film is essential viewing. Even if it is completely devastating.
100
It’s profoundly compelling, expertly made, and quite intentionally horrifying.