Hugh Grant, centre, plays pithy and professorial Mr. Reed in Heretic.Kimberley French/The Associated Press
Heretic
Written and Directed by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Starring Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East
Classification R; 110 minutes
Iowa-raised filmmaking duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are no strangers to an ambitious genre outing. Co-writers of the postapocalyptic thriller A Quiet Place (2018) as well as co-directors of the 2019 slasher Haunt and the 2023 Adam Driver sci-fi vehicle 65, the pair’s newest film, Heretic, clearly aims to raise the stakes in terms of the aesthetically determined, high concept horror flicks that have been trending onscreen as of late.
Starring English screen veteran Hugh Grant as the pithy and professorial Mr. Reed, the film follows two young Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), as they become ensnared in a cat-and-mouse game of theological undoing and literal entrapment which attempts to test, twist and distort the Sisters’ religious convictions as well as their sense of selves.
A dialogue-driven escalation of philosophical quandaries, Heretic is a genre chamber piece with intellectual aspirations. Arriving on Mr. Reed’s doorstep following his request for more information regarding the Mormon church, Sisters Barnes and Paxton enter the reclusive Englishman’s home despite their initial hesitations.
While the two women are no doubt a product of the religious environments in which they were raised, Sister Barnes is the more impressionable of the pair, quick to offer grace to – if not faith in – those around her, while Sister Nancy is more firm in her boundaries. It’s a dynamic that Grant’s Mr. Reed is quick to observe and play into as he, at first, embroils the pair in a heated theological debate.
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From comparing Mormonism to Wendy’s and God to Jar Jar Binks, Mr. Reed is a well-studied theologian and pop culturist who uses the young women’s vulnerabilities and uncertainties to continually build on his often one-sided argument. He believes without doubt in religion’s function as a means of social and political control, quickly volleying back any of the missionaries’ counterarguments in an escalating series of interrogations meant to further shake the young women’s’ understanding of their beliefs
It’s a well-oiled choreography of deeply charged and uncomfortable conversation that is often and subtly undertaken in bad faith; nevertheless, the sisters indulge Mr. Reed in various degrees up until the very moment they realize their lives are in danger. Their accommodating behaviour is, of course, all part of Reed’s design, with his insidiously charming veneer and humorous, however seething, monologues working to keep the women in a lockstep of niceties until his sadistic intentions are no longer deniable.
With stellar production design by Philip Messina, formally elegant and athletic camera work by The Handmaiden (2016) and Oldboy (2003) cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung, as well as yet another skilfully executed character role for perpetually charming (onscreen, at least) actor Grant to add to his recent filmography, the first hour of Heretic is a sleek and sharp take on religious horror that weds style with substance.
It is in the film’s last act wherein Mr. Reed’s final interrogation of their faith – a claim of having found one true religion – that the skillful construction of Heretic begins to crumble. Fallen prey to the Matryoshka doll-esque architecture of Mr. Reed’s home, the Sisters are forced into the ascetic subterranean spaces of the house in a final test of their religious convictions.
It’s a Richard Dawkins meets Zach Cregger’s Barbarian inspired narrative shift that sees the plotting of the film make a sharp left turn, undoing the well-structured coherence of its first hour through a series of often mediocre twists and reveals. Here, Heretic’s high-minded ambitions get the best of itself: The film aims to shock, but struggles to commit to the perversity and, more importantly, logic of the bit, underestimating audience’s smarts and effectively pulling the rug out from under its previously well-staged self in the process.
It’s a severely missed opportunity that will likely leave audiences wanting more from a film that initially grounded them within its own elevated standards in terms of character and story world. Much like its own Mr. Reed, Heretic is, for better and for worse, a performance of cleverness that, at times, reaches great heights, but inevitably succumbs to its own all-too-mediocre devolution.
In the interest of consistency across all critics’ reviews, The Globe has eliminated its star-rating system in film and theatre to align with coverage of music, books, visual arts and dance. Instead, works of excellence will be noted with a critic’s pick designation across all coverage. (Television reviews, typically based on an incomplete season, are exempt.)
