The new A24 movie Heretic kicks off with a jump scare familiar to modern viewers: A knock at the door, from two missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That said, before they arrive at the door of the mysterious Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), the audience has gotten to know young Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) a bit, young women who care about their faith, but not to an obsessive degree; as they wheel their bicycles around town, they gossip and joke about how handsome their future husbands might end up being.
So while the average citizen might dread getting their knock on the door, Barnes and Paxton themselves seem like good eggs, with enough development to make them distinct from each other. It’s clearly Mr. Reed who is the villain of this idea-dense thriller, one that aims to explore the concept of religion from a whole new angle — while also engaging in some classic locked-house horror tropes, the suspense kept at a razor’s edge by writer/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place, 65).
Grant being the bad guy comes as hardly a shock, if only because Grant is deep into what he’s calling his “freak show era,” playing wild comedy characters and terrorizing poor Ben Whishaw across multiple projects. Because Grant, in this scenario, is not portraying a post-apocalyptic cannibal the way he did in Cloud Atlas, there’s a temptation to suggest that Mr. Reed represents a somewhat tamer role.
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But that would be inaccurate. Mr. Reed does always conduct himself with a certain amount of decorum — that well-honed British poise serving Grant well in context. And he’s a charismatic man on first acquaintance, even if his house verges on creepy. It proves pretty believable in context that they’d believe him when he says that his wife is home — she’s just not feeling up to company (and whether or not Mr. Reed is actually lying about this becomes a pretty significant part of the plot). However, both Barnes and Paxton, as naive as they are, eventually know that something is wrong; with even just a little bit more awareness of the world, they probably wouldn’t have entered Mr. Reed’s house on their own.
At this particular moment in history, it’s probably worth issuing a trigger warning for the fact that this is a movie in which two young women are tormented by an older man who literally locks them in his house and makes them listen to his long-winded rants about religion. And that’s not even the part of Heretic that’s meant to be truly terrifying — that’s just the appetizer. The main course occurs later, as the girls get offered a chance at escape… though how real that offer feels is unclear.
The secrets being kept by Mr. Reed as well as his house contribute to an unnerving vibe that helps drive so much of the film’s terror, even while Mr. Reed monologues about how the evolution of certain board games reflects the evolution of world religions, while also dropping a Jar Jar Binks impression into the mix. Beck and Woods manage to keep this three-hander pretty lively on its feet, despite the dense amounts of script, and have a real knack for capturing the necessary atmosphere.
It’d be one thing if suffering through Mr. Reed’s torture led to a greater catharsis, but instead Heretic takes a great deal of glee in tearing at sacred cows of religion, including a direct assault on the faith of its protagonists. Mr. Reed’s intention is to tear these women down and rebuild them again, and the journey is so fundamentally nasty, especially towards the end, that whatever enlightenment comes as a result feels sullied.
Grant’s performance inspires makes this film worthy of note. But expect to leave Heretic with perhaps less faith in mankind than you had already. (Wherever your levels were to begin with is a whole other question.)
Heretic is in theaters beginning Friday, November 8th. Check out the trailer below.
