|
|
JUSTIN TANNER REVIEWS HOLY SPIDER
The agonizingly tense horror-thriller “Holy Spider” is directed by Ali (”Border”) Abbasi with meticulous attention to the telling detail and an observational naturalism that almost gives it the tone of a documentary. Unfortunately, the violence is more disturbing than it needs to be, with Abbasi’s claustrophobic camera making us far too intimately privy to the brutal strangulations of multiple prostitutes by a religiously motivated serial killer. When the horrifically grim denouement is reached we realize how much stronger the movie would be without all this literal suffocation going on: by front-loading his film with constant images of death, the truly shocking ending is robbed of its power to transform. The outlines of the story — though somewhat fictionalized — follow the series of murders that took place two decades ago in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad by a real person, Saeed Hanaei.
This connection to authentic events lends the film a creepy voyeuristic perversity, and coupled with the potently visceral, utterly credible work from the actors, causes the movie to move uncomfortably out of the realm of drama and into the revolting taboo world of the snuff film. Though we are watching actors play roles, we can’t help but identify with the actual people they represent and the very real suffering those hapless victims went through. And therein lies the problem. Depending on your stomach for sickeningly ferocious depictions of violence against women — even in the name of 'forbidden fruit' witness-protection-program style 'someone needs to document this horror' art — “Holy Spider” may be too much to bear. In particular, the murder of the drug-addicted prostitute Somayeh (a tough-as-nails Alice Rahimi), involving an imaginary scene of her just-strangled corpse laughing crudely at her killer — which prompts him to basically stomp her head in — is indulgent and needless. We get it, this guy is bad news; his victims were horribly brutalized. Yet being forced to witness this literal level of ‘overkill’ does nothing to enhance the film. Instead, it exhausts our ability to experience its intent or message, and leaves us numb and disengaged.
Similar to the moment in “Women Talking” when we realize Sheila McCarthy’s character has had her teeth bashed in by the rampaging men of her religious community, the decision by Abbasi to subject us to such authentic images of ugliness moves “Holy Spider” from the world of ‘social consciousness’ into the prurient territory of torture-porn. And it’s too bad since the story itself is strong enough to work without the clinical recreations. Besides, if you can get past these thoroughly icky scenes — which I did by simply closing my eyes and hitting mute — the movie’s real emotional horror comes not from the physical violence on display, but from the appalling way that the religious community reacts after the killer is apprehended.
In the movie’s plot, the fictionalized character of journalist Arezoo Rahimi — beautifully played by Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who won the best Actress award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival — comes to Masshad in search of a story and ends up using herself as bait in order to successfully flush out the killer. But once Saeed is captured, the public sentiment is overwhelmingly supportive of his deeds. Large gatherings of men — and women — protest for his immediate release. He is seen as a hero ridding the streets of morally suspect undesirables. Most disturbingly, Saeed's son Ali (the chilling Mesbah Taleb) not only considers the killings just, he is hoping to follow in his father’s grisly footsteps. The jaw-dropping final scene — which manages, without any violence whatsoever to thoroughly creep us out — brings the film’s theme of “intergenerational imprinting” brilliantly to the fore. And is proof that we didn’t need to see any of the murders reenacted in order for “Holy Spider” to resonate.
If director Abbasi had trusted the material and the audience’s ability to use their own imagination, instead of unleashing a seemingly endless series of vile images we wish we hadn’t seen, this last breathtaking moment might’ve seriously moved us and inspired a blisteringly emotional investment. Instead it plays like a recap: ghastly, to be sure, but also a little bit of “been there, seen that.” There’s no denying the power of the film or the universality of its message. I only wish Abbasi had tempered his rage so the compelling narrative of “Holy Spider” might reach a wider audience. The bitterness of this particular pill makes the medicine a little too acrid to swallow. STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME
|
|
