Movie Review: ‘Heretic’

The creepy ‘Heretic’ pits a jovial, sinister Hugh Grant against a pair of religious missionaries in a battle of wits that begins to fray toward the finish.

Hugh Grant in 'Heretic'. Photo: A24.

Opening in theaters November 8th is ‘Heretic,’ directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and starring Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, and Topher Grace.

Initial Thoughts

(L to R) Chloe East, Hugh Grant and Sophie Thatcher in 'Heretic'. Photo: A24.

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the co-writers of the original ‘A Quiet Place’ and writers-directors of the Adam Driver-starring dinosaur action thriller ’65,’ have returned to helm a much smaller scale horror tale here – but don’t be fooled by its size. In its own insidious way, ‘Heretic’ is quite the cerebral exercise, powered in its first two-thirds by a malevolently good-natured Hugh Grant and a script that tackles the nature of belief and religion in provocative fashion.

Yet it’s still very much a horror movie, and it’s when ‘Heretic’ begins pulling out the overt shocks and grue that the film kind of loses its way. Yet thanks to the work of Grant and his two co-leads, the film’s setting, and most of Woods and Beck’s script, ‘Heretic’ is still a fun genre exercise with a diabolical edge.

Story and Direction

(L to R) Co-director Bryan Woods, Chloe East, and co-director Scott Beck on the set of 'Heretic'. Photo: A24.

Sisters Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Paxton (Chloe East) are two young Mormon missionaries who are door-knocking in a small mountain town, hitting up homes that have requested further information on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For the two women – whose relative innocence is communicated by their pronunciation of words like “porno-ography” in hushed tones – it’s a mostly frustrating day of either no responses or brief exchanges and closing doors.

So when the cheerful Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) opens his door to them as a fierce downpour begins, offering them tea and a slice of blueberry pie that his wife is making back in the kitchen – along with a receptive ear to their pitch – they welcome the respite. And after all, his wife is in the kitchen so it’s okay for the two girls to be in the presence of an older man, right?

It’s not long, however, that the women – particularly Sister Barnes – begin to suspect that something is amiss. Mr. Reed keeps making excuses for his wife not coming out with the pie, even as he good-naturedly begins to listen to their spiel and ever so gently push back on them. For every talking point they roll out about their faith, he responds with a criticism of it, with the conversation gradually expanding into a full-blown back-and-forth on the nature and history of religion itself. And once he manages to lure them deeper into his house – into a library of religious texts and art with two doors on the back wall like something out of a bizarre game show – it’s all too clear that Mr. Reed’s deferential, endlessly well-mannered veneer hides something much more ominous.

(L to R) Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East in 'Heretic'. Photo: A24.

From that point on, it’s spoiler territory, but what we can say is that for its first two-thirds, ‘Heretic’ is not your average horror film: it offers up food for thought and intellectual exercise even as Woods and Beck slowly tighten the screws and thicken the miasma of dread that begins to settle on the proceedings not long after the two girls enter Mr. Reed’s abode. Speaking of which, the set design here is superb: as the missionaries are drawn deeper into the house, it gradually seems to become one of those surreal haunted houses that appears much bigger and more labyrinthine on the inside than it does on the outside.

Yet the directors also manage to make the proceedings increasingly claustrophobic: during several of their verbal exchanges, the camera gets closer and closer to Grant’s face with each cut, until his features literally fill the screen to accentuate his growing control over the women’s predicament. Never has Grant’s impish grin seemed so dangerous.

It's only in the third act that the directors’ precision and control over their own story starts to come loose. While Grant, Thatcher and East all remain on point, the story takes several turns into more conventional horror territory while making Mr. Reed’s eventual endgame more elaborate and a bit harder to swallow. We’re all for leaving things in horror movies unexplained – that’s what makes the genre effective in many instances – but it all ultimately seems like a lot of work for this one man to make his singular point.

The Cast

(L to R) Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East in 'Heretic'. Photo: A24.

It’s easy to get into the delights of Hugh Grant’s work here, but let’s first pay tribute to his costars. Sophie Thatcher (best known as the younger version of Juliette Lewis’ character on ‘Yellowjackets’) and Chloe East are quite convincing as two young Mormon women, filled with unquestioning devotion to their faith, who are at first earnestly interested in talking with Mr. Reed. Thatcher’s Sister Barnes is the more worldly of the two, and the more savvy, while East’s Sister Paxton is somewhat naïve, although it’s clear that both have led largely sheltered lives up to this point. Both believably descend into terror as well, occasionally making less-than-wise decisions but not the kind of stupid mistakes that often take you out of horror films.

As for Grant, he’s just marvelous. Polite to a fault, seemingly respectful toward the women (at least at first), and full of both glimmering intelligence and good-humored deviousness, he holds the screen even at his most bonkers (such as his impromptu performance of Radiohead’s “Creep”). The charm of his younger days as a stammering, flustered romantic lead is still in evidence, only Grant curdles it into something darker and more toxic – you’re going to have to hear him out no matter what, only he’s not professing his love but expounding on his twisted worldview as if it’s just as enchanting.

Final Thoughts

Hugh Grant in 'Heretic'. Photo: A24.

The argument at the center of ‘Heretic’ is a fascinating one that could provide fodder for after-movie debate (we know which side we fall on, but we won’t say more than that). That in itself is somewhat of a rarity in the current horror landscape, which (with some exceptions) has lately tilted toward generational or family trauma as the source of the terrors, supernatural or otherwise, that permeate the stories being told.

If more in-your-face horror shocks are what you’re looking for, ‘Heretic’ may try your patience. But Woods and Beck, with the help of their three leads, have created a mostly absorbing, if imperfect, thriller with loads of creepy atmosphere. Even if it falters toward the finish line, ‘Heretic’ is an intellectual, psychological, and theological cat-and-mouse game that’s as witty as it is wily.

‘Heretic’ receives 7 out of 10 stars.

What is the plot of ‘Heretic’?

Two Mormon missionaries (Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher) get more than they bargained for when they knock on the door of a jovial older man (Hugh Grant), whose interest in their religious pitch turns into something much more sinister.