Heretic Review: One Of 2024’s Best Horror Movies Is Arriving Just After Halloween

Curiosity is a potent component of watching Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ Heretic. It’s quick to make you like the pair of leads, and being aware of what kind of movie you are watching, you’re concern about what’s to come. It further intrigues with the introduction of the mysterious antagonist, who constantly makes you question what is real and what is fiction. The protagonists get further pulled deeper into the villain’s sinister plan, and you wonder with fright what the next level with deliver. And finally, with its enigmatic conclusion, the film has you consider its themes and draw your own interpretations.

Within its 110 minute runtime, it constantly finds new ways to fascinate and frighten – and it does so with just three principal characters and (an albeit complex) single setting.

A minimalist feature such as this requires a sharp, intelligent script and performers who can effectively captivate and carry the full weight of the story, and Heretic shines with both. A smart, meta story structure is complemented with intelligent, incisive, and well-researched commentary about the long, broad history of organized religion, and stars Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, and Chloe East each offer unique energies that raise the film’s temperature to a full boil.

Thatcher and East respectively play Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in Colorado who plan to end their day of proselytizing visiting the home of a man named Mr. Reed (Grant). With rain starting to pour down and Mr. Reed promising the security of his wife being in the kitchen baking a blueberry pie, the young women go into the house and prep their pitch for Mormonism.

As the conversation starts, Barnes and Paxton are taken aback and impressed by their host’s intellectual insights about religion and the depth of his education on the subject. The circumstances progressively get creepier, however, as Mr. Reed’s wife fails to ever appear, the smell of blueberry pie is revealed to be from a scented candle, and it’s learned that the front door has a lock with a timer – requiring one to exit the house from the back. The missionaries try to keep their composure, but it becomes ever clearer that they have been caught in an intricate trap designed with the intention of testing their faith.

Heretic has a sharp and scary script offering fascinating perspectives on organized religion.

There are some deviations from this main story, as Topher Grace plays a church elder who realizes that Barnes and Paxton haven’t checked in and begins to retrace their steps, but Heretic primarily keeps you trapped with the protagonists in Mr. Reed’s house, and it’s gripping in its skillful escalation (there’s a natural, effective correlation between the young women literally descending into the puzzle and the rise of tension in the atmosphere). Sympathetic fear is an important part of the equation, as it becomes progressively clearer that Barnes and Paxton are in real trouble, but its more substantial success is its rhetoric and debate.

The villainy of Mr. Reed is never in question, but he fits snugly into the cinematic history of intellectual psychopaths who weaponize their intelligence to emotionally break their target – and he inarguably makes some insightful points, from likening missionary work to marketing and making a parallel between the shared roots of popular religions and the melodic link between “The Air That I Breathe” by The Hollies, “Creep” by Radiohead and “Get Free” by Lana Del Ray. He successfully earns the respect of the audience by flexing his education and reason, and you’re terrified/morbidly curious to find out what his end game is and the ultimate “truth” he has learned through all of his study.

Heretic isn’t just a scary lecture, though, and Barnes and Paxton aren’t agency-less hostages. It’s easy to imagine there being obtuse, ignorant accusations of it being so, but the movie isn’t an attempted beat down on the Mormon Church or organized religion in general; it activates a conversation about personal faith and the place that faith-based institutions have in our society. The protagonists aren’t blind followers who allow their beliefs to crumble based on Mr. Reed’s oratory, as part of their fight for freedom is challenging his unfolding thesis and presented evidence.

Hugh Grant is a spellbinding creep in Heretic, and Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are wonderful.

Phenomenal production design by Philip Messina makes Mr. Reed’s house a singularly daunting environment and the excellent cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung ensconces the audience in the trap right alongside the lead characters, but Heretic’s intimate scope also means performances are paramount to sell the film’s intentions, and the production cast three actors perfectly fit for the task. The movie utterly fails as an exercise in horror without inspiring empathetic fear for Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, but Sophie Thatcher (who is quickly establishing herself as a tremendous talent in the genre) and Chloe East impress with both pathos and fortitude as the story progresses.

Excellent as his colleagues are, Hugh Grant is the spotlight star in Heretic, as it’s his performance that makes the film the standout that it is. Audiences have spent decades appreciating his special brand of British charm in comedies and romantic dramas, and that familiar gentleness proves effectual as Mr. Reed lures Barnes and Paxton into his home – but Grant then proceeds to cash in all that earned emotional goodwill for a creeptastic turn as the character’s true intentions come to light. He doesn’t showcase a dangerous anger or pose a physical threat; his danger is as a charismatic guide leading the young women into his maze, and his recognized delightful grin is rendered chilling.

The release window for Heretic is a bit strange, as its arriving in theaters just a little over a week after Halloween, but it’s a worthy effort expanding spooky season. It’s a film with an intelligent, insightful vision, a taut and thrilling script, a trio of outstanding performances, and a fascinating ending that lives in your mind well beyond the end credits – making it easily one of the best horror movies of the year.