Hugh Grant is magnificent as the dastardly Mr Reed, but Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are more than a match in this compelling three-hander.
★★★★☆
Those who go into Heretic looking for the next Saw will be disappointed. Heretic is a wordy psychological horror that’s closer to the world’s most demented college seminar than a classic Saw trap— but that’s not to say the film isn’t a spine tingling and twisty time.
Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the duo responsible for the original script of 2016’s A Quiet Place, the film follows young missionaries Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) Sister Paxton (Chloe East) of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Determined to get the naive Sister Paxton her first baptism, and armed with a list of potential converts and a couple of bikes (which must be hauled up several sets of stairs), the two young women find themselves on the doorstep of one Mr Reed. With night beginning to fall and the rain hammering down, he’s quick to invite them inside. Mission rules forbid the young women from being alone with him without another woman present, so when Mr Reed informs them his wife is in the kitchen making a blueberry pie the girls are happy to accept his invitation. What begins as an awkward attempt at conversion slowly devolves into something more sinister as Mr Reed’s polite questions become more probing and personal. This gives way to a deeper and more sinister conversation on the power of faith and blind belief. For example, do you really believe Mr Reed’s wife is home, just because he told you so?
Hugh Grant, adding to his recent string of stand out villain roles (alongside Paddington 2 and Dungeons and Dragons) is magnificent as the affable antagonist Mr Reed, a compelling mix of Grant’s charming, bumbling, rom-com persona and a maniacal debate bro. Grant walks the line behind mastermind, observing the woman’s choices like watching rats in a maze, and a man who is insufferably full of his own opinion. He does, after all, literally lock these women in his house so he can lecture them on his favorite subject: religion. He’s here to teach them the errors of their ways of course, through a combination of Monopoly, Radiohead and blueberry pie.
Heretic could easily just be a vessel for Grant to showcase his talent, but Thatcher and East are more than a match for him. This is a three-hander, held together equally by these three capable actors. Thatcher brings a quiet intensity to Sister Barnes, which immediately dings your radar that she’s not your ‘typical’ missionary, but it’s East’s Sister Paxton who shines. The more naïve of the two missionaries, she’s the one who’s forced to grow the most during the course of the film. East plays Paxton with an earnest, cringey, people-pleasing nature that feels instantly recognisable and real. Both actresses are actually former members of the church, which belies a certain level of care by the filmmakers in making their characters feel compelling and rounded.
The weight of the performances is what makes the first hour of the film so interesting, bolstered by excellent cinematography and set design. There is no violence or horror in the slasher sense, just a couple of frogs in a pot as the temperature rises. Coercion, control and gender are all at play, with the woman using politeness and placations to try and deescalate a situation that continues to spin out of their control. This brings us to darkly absurd scenes of the women trying to defuse a situation that is already well out of line, politely requesting Mr Reed open the front door while Mr Reed explains, equally politely, why he simply can’t. They’ll have to go out the back way. Via, of course, one of two creepy doors marked Belief and Disbelief.The mounting sense of dread as this ghoulish game plays out is so affecting it’s almost disappointing when the film begins to move into a more conventional horror/slasher mode in its second half. Not all of Heretic’s twists and turns land, and while its religious dynamics aren’t surface level, the film never truly pushes deep into the many facets of its central theme.
That’s not to say that Heretic is not an inquisitive, clever, creepy film. Its premise, two religious women trapped in the house of a diabolical man, could easily match that of an exploitation movie. But what emerges is a far more thoughtful film that feels genuinely interested in its subject matter.
The Verdict
Heretic is terror-soaked meditation on religion and belief, not quite as clever as it wants to be but far cleverer than average instalments in the genre. So long as you don’t mind a charismatic Hugh Grant monologuing his dissertation thesis at you, Heretic is well worth the watch.
Words by Louise Eve Leigh
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