WSB x Moving Picture Review: Heretic
Hugh Grant, Chloe East, and Sophie Thatcher in Heretic, image via IMDB
Heretic, the new religious horror film from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (Haunt, 65), stars Hugh Grant (The Lair of the White Worm, Wonka) as an enigmatic “investigator,” or one seeking to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Chloe East (The Wolf of Snow Hollow) and Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets, MaXXXine) as the missionaries sent to meet with him.
Sisters Barnes (Thatcher) and Paxton (East) open the film with a frank, if naive, conversation about signs from God—a conversation that does well to set up each of them for the trials their faiths will be put through. They’ve been assigned to visit the home of Mr. Reed (Grant), who by all accounts seems eager to learn more about the church. After declining Reed’s invitation into his home, and spurred by the rapidly declining weather, the women accept his explanation that his wife would be joining them, but that she is busy in the kitchen. When Reed returns from the kitchen with drinks—and alone—he’s quick to jump into their discussion, delaying, for the first time, his wife’s introduction.
Logic vs. Faith
One of the things that Heretic does extremely well is inviting audiences into its sometimes heady religious arguments without seeming too didactic or condescending. It’s a trait that Beck and Woods share with some of the best of Mike Flanagan’s work, delivering soulful monologues and deep explorations of belief in a way that doesn’t alienate people of any creed. For Mr. Reed, his request to hear more from the missionaries only comes after a great deal of personal study. “You read more than we do!” Sister Paxton exclaims after seeing his heavily marked copy of the Book of Mormon. Still, Mr. Reed seems anxious to learn more from the Sisters, probing with friendly questions about where they’re from, how they came to the church, and (of course) how they came to decide that theirs was the one true religion. Not until after they realize that they’ve been tricked do the women realize that Mr. Reed’s questions have a certain bite to them—a pointedness that hints at more sinister motives.
It’s only a stroke of serendipity that both East and Thatcher grew up in the Mormon church, though perhaps it’s that experience that made them stand out for the parts. No matter the how or why, though, both are absolute stars in Heretic, which asks a lot from each of them. Initially, Sister Paxton is full of bubbly optimism, while Sister Barnes comes across as the more reserved of the two. The way that both actors can breathe life into their characters—in Paxton’s full-throated conviction and the quiet seeds of Barnes’s doubt—will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s gone through the emotional hills and valleys of being a young adult in an evangelical church. But when the characters find themselves at Mr. Reed’s mercy, and “the only way out is through,” as Paxton quotes, the actors really shine, delivering a gamut of complex emotions with nothing but subtle changes in their facial expressions as long takes and extreme close-ups take over.
Grant, meanwhile, seems to be having the time of his life. He brings a twisted playfulness to Reed’s game, leading the Sisters into numerous logical traps, prodding them toward his apparently irrefutable conclusion. His theological arguments, which the film’s horror hinges on, are flawed. But it’s those flaws that give them their weight in an age where zealots need not be restricted to peer-reviewed truths to shape their worldviews. Reed’s justifications are much like his labyrinthine house—warped, crooked, none of the angles appearing to fit quite right. He’s both convincing and not, his self-assuredness only masking the fact that he’s seeking as much validation as any of us.
As Barnes and Paxton descend deeper into Reed’s bizarre game, and their physical and spiritual resolve is tested, the audience is dragged along into a one-of-a-kind battle for the soul that looks to continue an already monumental year for horror. Heretic is a film that rewards thought and discussion after the fact as much as it does on screen, and it comes at the right time when its themes are more visible and consequential than ever.
WSB x Moving Picture Reviews is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival. The Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival celebrates both the art of cinema and the rich motion picture exhibition tradition of the City of Pittsburgh. Our goal in this series is to highlight new and upcoming genre films and, wherever possible, to support local, independent movie theaters in the process.
Article Written by Ande Thomas
Ande loves the intersection of sci-fi and horror, where our understanding of the natural world clashes with our fear of the new and unknown. He is an independent member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and a supporting member of the Horror Writers Association. He writes about monsters and foreign horror and can also be found over on Letterboxd.
