Review: The serial killer thriller ‘Holy Spider’ gets stuck in its own morally murky web
On April 8, 2002, Saeed Hanaei was executed for the murders of 16 women between 2000 and 2001 in the Iranian city of Mashhad. The media dubbed him the “Spider Killer” for the way he lured his victims into his lair — the same apartment he shared with his unsuspecting wife and children, though like any good family man turned moonlighting murderer, he made sure they were out of the way before getting his hands dirty. In his confession, Hanaei said he had specifically targeted sex workers as part of a God-given mission to cleanse Mashhad, often thought of as Iran’s spiritual capital, of sin and vice. One of the story’s
