How should we balance a movie’s aims and execution, when the two very evidently diverge? In dramatizing the true story of early-aughts serial killer Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani), who murdered 16 sex ...

The gripping Iranian serial killer film, “Holy Spider” is set in the holy city Mashhad, where Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani) is murdering sex workers. (The pre-credit sequence depicts his ninth victim).

Holy Spider is about a serial killer. The film follows a man who preys on female sex workers because he believes it's his God-given duty to "wage a jihad against vice." The film's release came at a ...