Heretic follows two Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), who go door to door for new followers of their faith. Finally they find themselves on the doorstep of Mr. Reed (Grant), who invites them into the house with the utmost British friendliness, promises them blueberry pie and shows the deepest religious interest. To then have one Evening of pure horror to unleash.
Check out the trailer for Heretic here:
Heretic – Trailer 2 (German) HD
In the vaults of his suburban house he has set up a kind of obstacle course that is intended to test the faith of his two guests in the most painful and brutal way. And in doing so, something comes to light that makes both of them doubt their sanity.
Heretic lives from extremely dense atmosphere and 1000 surprises
Heretic is an A24 film that many fans of the indie studio will love. With complete attention to detail, directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (both directed 65, screenplay for A Quiet Place) create an extremely eerie atmosphere. They design a bourgeois living room with framed photos and crocheted blankets that is disturbing in its artificiality. Then open one Dungeon full of flickering lights and ancient symbolism, under which the gates of hell seem to be located.
What will also be gripping for many viewers is the rollercoaster dramaturgy of the film: what begins as a drama quickly turns out to be a psychological thriller then shows the signs of a real horror shocker, and finally even flirt with sci-fi elements. What is deception and truth will not be revealed here.
Hugh Grant’s character and performance are a stroke of genius
The film works brilliantly when it lets Grant act as the villain, who here covers the entire spectrum of the human psyche: whether cranky-cute, scary, mercilessly brutal or simply insanely out of touch, the Notting Hill star delivers one of the top performances of his career.
What is intoxicating is not least the intellectual wealth with which the script equips his character: he attacks the beliefs of his victims from all sides, showing himself to be an open-minded person of faith, an academic doubter, a zealot of merciless convictions. And as grinning sadist with great love for the game.
In his dialogues, his character unleashes an outline of the history of faith over 10,000 years, which seems to include the monotheistic world religions, the deities of Hinduism and hundreds of currents and byways.
In an extremely entertaining series of scenes, he draws a line between Jesus Christ and Jar Jar Binks, reveals the left-wing feminist foundation of Monopoly, and uses the Radiohead song Creep to illustrate his observations on religion. You have to imagine this: Hugh Grant, equipped with Jeffrey Dahmer memory glasses, standing in front of two desperate young Mormon women and whining: “I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo!” It is a scene for the ages, a moment of true cinematic genius.
One thing about Heretic disappoints
Whenever Heretic leaves the breeding ground of its brilliant main character, the quality of the film also suffers. The entire intellectual construct of the film is carried by Grant’s performance. In the final twist of the film, the directors miss the entire criticism of religion with an extremely powerful punch line, which, however, enhances Mr. Reed’s rich character drawing significantly weakens. It’s like following the flow of a fascinating machine through 1,000 cogs, only to finally realize the disappointing insignificance of its actual function.
Heretic is still worth every look. Especially for big Hugh Grant fans, who will be throwing the doors wide open to a new career phase here at the latest. A warning is still necessary: Anyone who goes to the cinema now will never see Notting Hill the same way again.
Heretic has been running since then December 26, 2024 in the cinema.