TRAILERS

Cannes Best Actress Winner - Full US Trailer for 'Holy Spider' Thriller

by Alex Billington
September 28, 2022
Source: YouTube

"I did it all for God… I'm not finished yet." Now that's scary. Utopia has revealed the official US trailer for an acclaimed, award-winning indie film made in Iran titled Holy Spider, which originally premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It won Best Actress there for star Zar Amir Ebrahimi - who really is tremendous in this one. It's the next film from an Iranian-Danish filmmaker named Ali Abbasi, who earned acclaim for his excellent Swedish troll film Border. This film is about a journalist who travels deep into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners. Based on a true story, which is especially freaky. Holy Spider stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Mehdi Bajestani. I wrote in my Cannes review: "it's brutally realistic, unflinching look at murder in modern times." It's a very dark film.

Here's the full official US trailer for Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider, direct from Neon's YouTube:

You can rewatch the first festival trailer for Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider here, for even more footage.

Female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers. As the body count mounts and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the ‘Spider Killer’ is embraced by many as a hero. Based on the horrific true story of serial killer Saeed Hanaei, acclaimed writer-director Ali Abbasi (Border) unveils a gripping crime thriller and a daring indictment of a society in which rough justice is routinely a fact of life. Holy Spider, also known as Les Nuits de Mashhad in French, is directed by Iranian-Danish writer / filmmaker Ali Abbasi, director of the Swedish film Border and the drama Shelley previously, as well as a few other shorts. The screenplay is written by Ali Abbasi and Afshin Kamran Bahrami. This initially premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, playing in the Main Competition section. Utopia will release Abbasi's Holy Spider in select US theaters starting on October 28th, 2022 this fall. How does that look?

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