Bryan Woods, Chloe East, Heretic, horror, Hugh Grant, movies, reviews, Scott Beck, Sophie Thatcher, Topher Grace, Utah
October 31, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Utah, the horror film “Heretic” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Two young Mormon missionaries visit a potential convert in his home, where he traps them for sinister reasons.
Culture Audience: “Heretic” will appeal mainly to fans of star Hugh Grant and horror movies with many themes about how religion affects people’s lives.
“Heretic” is a very talkative horror film for the first third of the movie, where there’s much discussion about faith and religion. The acting performances are compelling, even when some of the plot twists aren’t very credible. Mind games outweigh any gore.
Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, “Heretic” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie’s biggest action scenes don’t happen until the last third of the movie. There’s a lot of “slow burn” tension that eventually increases and turns into effectively suspenseful moments. “Heretic” has some absolute surprises that would have had more impact if the movie’s ending hadn’t been so conventional.
“Heretic” has three characters that get the vast majority of screen time in the movie, which takes place primarily inside one house in an unnamed suburban city in Utah during the course of 24 hours. (“Heretic” was actually filmed in British Columbia, Canada.) The date in the story is November 7, in an unnamed year in the 2020s. The movie successfully conveys the feelings of foreboding and dread of the two visitors who become trapped in the house by the house’s owner.
The opening scene of “Heretic” shows the two young Mormon missionaries who will become these kidnapping victims. The characters in the movie aren’t identified by their first names, perhaps as a way to keep them at a certain emotional distance from the audience. Not much is told about the personal backgrounds of any of the characters in “The Heretic.”
Sister Barnes (played by Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (played by Chloe East), who are both in their late teens or early 20s, are sitting outside on a bench as they talk about the evils of pornography, but they’re curious enough to watch porn anyway. Sister Paxton says that when she was watching a porn movie, she could practically see the soul being sucked out of an actress in a sex scene. These missionaries both agree that the Tony-winning musical “The Book of Mormon” (which they’ve been forbidden to see) is obscene and isn’t representative of Mormon missionaries.
Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton have opposite personalities. Sister Barnes is introverted, brooding and emotionally guarded. Sister Paxton is extroverted, perky and talkative. Sister Barnes seems to be more “street smart” and more intellectual than Sister Paxton, who is more likely to know about pop culture than ancient philosophy. Sister Barnes is more of a planner who likes to take charge of a situation, compared to Sister Paxton, who seems to be more spontaneous and easygoing.
Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton are both devoted to their cause of going to people’s homes to preach to them about the Mormon religion to strengthen the faith of those who are already Mormon, or to convert those who are not Mormon. It’s later revealed that Sister Barnes is still emotionally scarred from the death of her father, who passed away of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, when she was a child. Sister Paxton’s parents are still alive and married, but she grew up in Portland, Oregon, and is still trying to adjust to this smaller city in Utah.
Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes, who travel by bicycle, have been out almost all day. It’s almost getting to the end of the day when it will soon turn dark. Their last appointment of the day is with someone named Mr. Reed (played by Hugh Grant), who lives in a Victorian-styled house in a fairly remote wooded area. All that these two missionaries know is that Mr. Reed wants to learn more about the Mormon religion.
When they arrive at Mr. Reed’s house, he seems very polite and friendly. Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton explain to him that they can’t go inside any home with a man unless there’s another woman who’s in the home. Mr. Reed says that his wife is baking blueberry pie in the kitchen. It has started to rain, so Mr. Reed invites Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton inside. During the course of the movie, the rain turns into heavy snow.
As already revealed in the trailer for “Heretic,” Mr. Reed lies about having a wife in the house, and he traps the two missionaries. Long before Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton find out that they’ve been kidnapped, there’s a huge stretch of this 110-minute movie where it’s nothing but Mr. Reed, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton having an increasingly comfortable conversation. The first red flag is when Mr. Reed asks Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton: “How do you feel about polygamy?”
Mr. Reed reveals that he studied theology when he was a university student, which is why he says he is fascinated with different religions. It’s obvious that Mr. Reed is not only highly intellectual (he quizzes the missionaries about different topics about religion, faith, history and spirituality), but he also has some very crude and twisted intentions. It’s explained at one point that Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton can’t use their cell phones because the house’s walls and ceilings are made of metal.
Music plays a prominent role in “Heretic,” most notably in a scene where Mr. Reed plays The Hollies’ 1974 hit “The Air That I Breathe” when he lectures the two missionaries about life’s “re-iterations.” He explains that Radiohead was sued for plagiarism for Radiohead’s 1992 hit “Creep,” because of the melody similarities to “The Air That I Breathe.” Lana Del Rey was later sued by Radiohead for plagiarism because Radiohead claimed that Lana Del Rey’s 2017 song “Get Free” was a plagiarism of “Creep.” Mr. Reed’s point: Religions, just like some songs, really aren’t original and are just of re-iterations of things that previously existed.
Grant is quite masterful at playing a villain who is both charming and sleazy. Mr. Reed is able to intrigue his victims because as soon as he shows his sleazy side, he puts on the charm and makes his victims question if they are being paranoid or are judging him too harshly. Grant’s performance is one of the reasons why “Heretic” is not as boring as it could have been in the first third of the movie, which has nothing but talking. However, some viewers might grow a little impatient to get to the action scenes, which happen much later in the movie than what it looks like in the “Heretic” trailer.
Thatcher and East give worthy performances as these two contrasting missionaries, although viewers still won’t feel like they really know Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton by the end of the movie. Just like many other horror movies, “Heretic” will make viewers wonder why these missionaries didn’t leave when things started to get weird with Mr. Reed and it was obvious there was no wife in the house. “Heretic” makes the point that these missionaries have been taught to be obedient and fulfill their mission as much as possible with every person they meet. In other words, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton are more trusting and more compliant than perhaps the average non-missionary person would be in the same situation.
Although the surprises in “Heretic” are mostly clever and truly unpredictable, a few twists just don’t ring true at all. For example, one of the missionaries has a complete change in personality toward the end of the film, which shows she had been deliberately hiding certain aspects of herself all along. This personality reveal only comes conveniently during the part of the movie that turns into a slasher flick and there’s a “life or death” battle.
A few plot holes are revealed early on in “Heretic.” One of the biggest plot holes is Mr. Reed used his name and real home address to make the appointment, which is in the records of the church where Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton work. When the two missionaries aren’t back at the church when expected, they’re considered missing. A church official named Elder Kennedy (played by Topher Grace) then goes looking for them.
Therefore, no matter what happens to these missionaries, there’s a record that the last place that they were supposed to be for the day was at Mr. Reed’s house. It would automatically make Mr. Reed a person of interest if there’s a police investigation of these missing missionaries. Mr. Reed is meticulous and cunning in many other aspects of his kidnapping plan, so it seems quite stupid of him to leave such a big clue that would make him the target of an investigation.
The screenplay flaws in “Heretic” don’t ruin the movie, but they lower the quality of the film, which undercuts the premise that Mr. Reed is supposed to be a criminal mastermind. A true mastermind would not make the obvious mistakes that Mr. Reed makes in luring these two missionaries into his trap. “Heretic” is at its best with its sharp dialogue and intense psychological horror scenes. The movie is not quite the non-stop thrill ride that it appears to be, but it has enough to keep viewer interest to see how everything is going to end.
A24 will release “Heretic” in U.S. cinemas on November 8, 2024. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in select U.S. cinemas on October 30, 2024.