Heretic (2024)
Spoiler free
If you’ve lived in the suburban U.S. for any length of time, you’re all too familiar with the Saturday knock at the door. Some religious group or another has shown up to bring you the good news. This could be any number of religious groups—Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, or even Scientologists—delivered straight to your door to save your soul. Luckily, with the advent of doorbell cameras, these encounters have become less and less frequent for me. I can quickly determine if someone has arrived to sell me something, whether physical or spiritual, and I can kindly tell them I’m not interested without ever leaving my couch. Heretic led me to rethink exactly how dangerous this practice might be for our suburban missionaries.
Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) show up at the doorstep of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) looking to talk salvation and quickly find themselves in hell. Once they are inside the home, the tension builds rapidly. The sisters quickly realize that things in the Reed house aren’t quite what they seem. The beginning of the film is excellent, as you can feel dread and terror building as Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton slowly start to realize they may not necessarily be free to leave. The midpoint of the film has some odd pacing, and the simple theological lessons feel like they drag a bit in places, although this didn’t pull me out of the film or make me less interested in seeing exactly where this A24 spiritual journey would take me.
The final act does deliver; although I can’t say the ending was shocking or surprising, it was satisfying. While Heretic is not the same jump-scare, gore-focused horror flick we’ve seen plenty of this year, it does offer a psychological horror experience I didn't realize I needed. While not what I would consider “scary,” let’s just call it very tense and even pretty thought-provoking. Writers-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods manage to pull off something pretty amazing that I didn’t think would be possible with a movie like this. It’s not an indictment on religious views, nor is it an endorsement. It threads a needle that would make the most seasoned politician jealous.
This is not your Notting Hill Hugh Grant. I thought for sure I wouldn’t be able to buy him as a psychological horror villain, but he absolutely crushes this role, and I can only hope we see more of this from him—maybe like a Nicholas Cage renaissance? The acting all around in this movie is amazing, and even in some of the midpoint moments that I felt were dragging, this cast carries it. Chloe East, as the innocent and naive Sister Paxton, who at first doesn’t seem like she could go toe-to-toe with a potato in a theological debate, flipping the switch and putting Mr. Reed on his heels, was one of the “Oh damn” moments of the film that had me hooked. Sophie Thatcher, as Sister Barnes, the more street-smart, no-nonsense door-to-door “Soul saver,” was amazing, and I can’t believe how great this cast was overall.
While Heretic probably won’t scare the shit out of you or leave you questioning your reality. It is another amazing film in the ever growing A24 arsenal and I can only hope for more of the same.