Heretic

The marketing campaign for Heretic started ominous, with producer and distributor A24 teasing an upcoming sale of a blueberry pie-scented candle, and missing person ads going up at Salt Lake City airport (Mormon capital of the world), asking “What happened to Paxton and Barnes?”

Now the film has premiered at TIFF and Zurich, before coming to UK cinemas on All Saints’ Day, but are audiences any closer to knowing what to expect from this sectarian thriller?

Above mentioned sisters Paxton (portrayed by The Fabelmans’ Chloe East) and Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, canvassing from door to door trying to recruit new members to their denomination. Their itinerary lands them at a hospitable oddball’s (Hugh Grant) house, who is far too delighted to debate religion with the young women.

It’s somewhat surprising it has taken this long for filmmakers to weaponise the charm that appointed Grant the romantic lead for the better part of his career for more sinister objectives than sardonic-but-ultimately-redeemable antihero, or cute children’s film villain. Instead, Mr Reed is polite and convivial – Grant’s smile still every bit as winning as in the previous decades – even if he might be a full-fledged psychopath: his charisma the very thing making the situation the girls find themselves in all the more unsettling.

The way the characters cling to common courtesy and shy away from being even slightly confrontational, to the extent that they wilfully ignore every warning bell going off in their head, displays certain similarities to Speak No Evil, but Heretic takes the criticism of self-inflicted bondage even further. While the comparison to free will ends up flawed – without heading too far into spoilerous territory – Mr Reed is quite emphatic about the fact that his visitors can leave anytime: raising the general question of why we as humans insist on imposing rules and restrictions on ourselves in our limited time on Earth.

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods might be most commonly associated with penning the screenplays for A Quiet Place and The Boogeyman, which is why their direction of dialogue is the feature’s greatest asset. As stalwart as the first half is, unfortunately, the piece ends up manoeuvring itself into a stalemate of sorts. With frivolous attempts at turning Mr Reed’s theories into practice, thoughtful arguments hand over the reins to shock value, sacrificing their potency.

Even as Heretic squanders its chance to leave a more lasting impact in favour of falling in line with expectations of genre cinema, its entertainment factor is not easily dismissed. The ubiquitous praise for Grant’s performance is thoroughly justified and worth experiencing with a packed audience for maximum enjoyment.

Selina Sondermann

Heretic is released nationwide on 1^st November 2024.

Watch the trailer for Heretic here: