Holy Spider Movie True Story: Holy Spider tells us the dramatized version of Saeed Hanaei who targeted sex workers and killed 16 women from 2000-2001 in the city of Mashhad. His modus operandi got him the name “Spider Killer” who not only had supporters in the normal folk but they actually encouraged that behavior.
Throughout the film, we’re met by scenes where Saeed is looking for a purpose in his life and at one point, after his son, Ali mistakenly hits his head with a football which makes Saeed lose it and he races to catch him but then stops and breaks down, while the family is on a trip. These things point towards the mental instability of Saeed Hanaei which was mentioned in the film but how Saeed hid behind the image of God to normalize his actions is what is notable here.
Saeed Hanaei was born in 1962 and had a dysfunctional childhood his mother violently abused him during his childhood. After he grew up, he served as a volunteer in the Iran-Iraq war, and in the film, we can see him talking about that. He talks about not dying as a martyr and questioning his existence and purpose in life. After coming back, he worked as a mason and was married, and had three children.
Saeed Hanaei started targeting female sex workers by picking them up from a location, taking them to his home, and then strangling them to death ending with dumping their bodies, He kept that going from August 2000 to July 2001 when he was caught by the Police.
During the Judicial process, he argued that he was trying to cleanse the holy city of Mashhad from the dirty women who were selling their bodies and that it was God’s will and his purpose in life. His actions were praised by the religious bodies and people who felt that Saeed didn’t commit any crime, Saeed Hanaei was hanged to death on April 8, 2002.
This whole incident was not just for the newspapers and blogs, it targeted the interests of documentary filmmakers and major film productions as well. In 2002, the whole incident and Saeed’s interview were part of the documentary “Along Came A Spider” released in 2002 and directed by Maziar Bahari followed by the 2020 film titled “Killer Spider” directed by Ebrahim Irajzad and then the 2022 film “Holy Spider” directed by Ali Abbassi.