Holy Spider Ending Explained: Religion however constructive it may seem for the devotees; the dark reality is that it could be bent into doing some of the most heinous crimes, There are quite a number of psychological thrillers that have folklore or religions embedded in them which show it being used in a negative way.
One of the recently released films “Holy Spider” tells the story of real-life serial killer Saeed Hanaei, in the city of Mashhad who terrorized the city from 2000-2001 by committing the murder of 16 women. Holy Spider gives us a glimpse of the city during those times and the capture and execution of the serial killer.
The film starts off with a woman who takes off from her house with her kid sleeping telling him that she’ll be back before he’s awake again. She is a prostitute and we see her journey that night from getting customers until she meets Saeed who arrives on a bike and takes her to his home and strangles her there.
Afterward, he rolls her in a cloth and dumps the body somewhere remote. Just like that, Saeed targets only the prostitutes but himself calls the newspaper editor and tells him the location of the body. Saeed starts getting called “The Spider Killer” because he lures the women like a spider and then kills them.
It’s the arrival of Rahimi, a journalist who is working on this case that things start to get motion. A fearless and straightforward Rahimi doesn’t stop conveying her beliefs about the country and starts working with the editor of the newspaper who gets calls from Saeed aka The Spider Killer.
As Saeed keeps killing women, we get deeper inside his psyche as to why he is killing women like this, especially prostitutes, Saeed says that the city of Mashhad is a holy city and the dirty women who sell their bodies for money hold no place there and it is the will of God that he does it.
We also get to understand that Saeed had fought in the war and while most of his comrades died and were martyred in the war, their families received the remains but Saeed questions why wasn’t he part of that. What was and is his purpose in life? Saeed finds this to be his purpose so he kills the prostitutes in the city.
It isn’t until Rahimi decides to act as a decoy and lure Saeed aka The Spider into thinking she’s a prostitute and capture him the plan doesn’t go according to the plan but Rahimi somehow saves herself and runs away followed by the arrival of the Police next day and Saeed is captured. During the judicial process, Saeed doesn’t stray away from being vocal about why did he kill 16 women and he has a lot of support from the people outside.
People are cheering for him and agree with his mindset, even his wife believes that he did the right thing Saeed on the other hand, acts confident that it’s the will of God and God wouldn’t let anything happen to him. The Judge sentences Saeed to death and that’s what happens, he is hanged to death in the end.
Rahimi on her way back is watching the interview tapes and stops where Saeed’s son Ali is proudly telling how his father lured the women into his home and killed them by pressing his feet on their chests and strangling them with his little sister acting as the woman.
We see towards the end of the film that Ali is very proud of his father for his actions and he mentions if the Police aren’t going to stop these women from selling their bodies, there’s going to be more Saeed in the future and he’s already been asked by people to take up the torch from his father.
Holy Spider is a realistic film that tells us the impact Religion and belief can do on someone and normalize murdering someone. The film ends on a more horrifying note that the acts of Saeed are not only agreed with but also encouraged by his own son and a lot of people in the city itself. The film is a reflection of the society we live in.
Holy Spider is streaming on Apple iTunes.
