Heretic (2024) – Review

Grade – A – Heretic expertly uses the horror genre to create an interesting discussion about faith and belief. It obviously doesn’t have any answers about the afterlife, but it does explore the messiness of organized religion and its quest to create one true religion.

The film opens with Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), two missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, questioning the size of magnum condoms and sharing quirky revelations that come from watching amateur pornography. Thatcher and East bounce the dialogue back-and-forth with a comfortable ease and their characters have a relaxed comradery as they travel around their coastal town (the movie was filmed in Squamish, British Columbia – it looks lovely) and deal with unresponsive locals and punk teenagers who question their magic underwear. Despite the many setbacks of pushing a fringe religion on small town residents, the two stay upbeat and positive as they visit homes of potential converts who rarely open their doors for them. Their travels lead them to the house of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant = perfection), a seemingly milquetoast man who lures them inside for a miserable night of religious lectures and locked doors. 

What’s impressive is that Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton are immediately likable and a lot of credit goes to the performances from Thatcher and East who create intelligent, kind, funny, and naive women who find themselves inside a house of horrors where they’ll have their religious knowledge put to the test by an extremely smug man. The back-and-forth debate between the missionaries and their captor is captivating and it’s fun watching the power shifts that come from their night of conversing. The script from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (the two also directed the movie) does a fine job of never revealing too much by slowly doling out surprises and revelations that are never seen coming.

One of the things I love most about the horror genre is that films like Heretic can feature an intelligent discussion about the history of organized religion AND death by pie. Heretic blends social commentary, humor (there’s a great bit about metal in the walls), and violence into a tight film that showcases a different side of Hugh Grant. He’s been a villain in Paddington 2 and Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, but Heretic utilizes his sharp wit and intelligence in different villainous ways. Mr. Reed is way too pleased with himself and he’s the type of guy who’d never consider that he’d lose games like chess, checkers or Monopoly (or The Landlord’s Game) to two naive missionaries (which is what makes him great). Mr. Reed is also an excellent character because of the intense work that Hugh Grant went through to bring him to life. Grant scoured the script, and created a biography for the character in an effort to create a “suffering” villain who isn’t too over the top.

The production design by Phillip Messina (mother! Tales From the Loop) and the cinematography from Chung-hoon Chung (Stoker, Oldboy, The Handmaiden, It, Thirst) are pitch perfect as the house feels like a prison loaded with shadowy corners and dark tunnels. Both have experience with films featuring memorable houses and prisons (Oldboy, mother!), so it’s no surprise that their work is top-notch. 

Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have created an interesting experiment that manages to challenge and excite. Since it’s a 110-minute film, it never comes close to exploring the depths of organized religion (which is impossible and not necessary). However, it manages to cover interesting themes of control, plagiarism, and humanity – which makes it an excellent horror film that I hope does well with mainstream audiences.