Heretic Review

Heretic Review 

A few days back I was able to check out the latest religious horror thriller, Heretic that stars Hugh Grant. This is one that I was very curious about, but wasn’t sure what to expect because of it being a religious horror movie. The early buzz for the movie was quite good so I was curious to check it out. What did I think about it? Is it any good? Let’s get started!

The Good

For me, the absolute best thing about this movie is that it takes this intriguing concept for a movie and executes on that idea so well. If you don’t know what this movie is about, it’s about these two Mormon missionaries who stop by this man’s house who want to learn more about god. They got into the house and he set up these puzzles for me to solve in order to escape. But all of the puzzles are related to their faith and questioning their belief. If that sounds like a great set up for a movie, that’s because it does and if that premise sounds good to you then go see this movie. With where this movie goes and the obstacle that Hugh Grant’s character keeps on putting in front of you, it does a great job of making both the characters in the movie as well as the audience question their beliefs and religion. It’s almost like a deconstruction of faith and Hugh Grant really messes with the ideas about what’s true in regards to their religion. It’s not done in a way that’s making fun of religion, there’s no cynicism tied to what it’s doing. It’s so fascinating with the ideas of how it’s done and I’m not somebody of faith, but I was compelled by it and even I was thinking what the characters in the movie were thinking. Even the ways that they communicate Grant’s point in all of this can get very clever with the analogies. He’ll start talking about Monopoly and pop culture as a way to communicate its ideas and it’s so cleverly done. 

Related to that, this is a horror thriller but it’s in that genre not by its use of jump scares or creepy images. But rather through dialogue and what Hugh Grant is saying to the characters. It’s the type of horror film that freaks you out because it gets in your head. People debate whether or not something like The Silence of the Lambs is a horror film, because while it is creepy it’s not really a horror film, it leans into more of the thriller side of things with horrific images. This movie is kind of like that, there are some gnarly and disturbing images. Even what Hugh Grant does in the back half of the movie isn’t pleasant. I would say this movie is more of a horror film then The Silence of the Lambs is. For me, these are the more interesting types of horror films coming out, the movies that constantly make you think and mess with your head rather than the movies that rely on jump scares and ominous music to freak out the audience. There’s multiple different things that make this aspect of the movie work as well as it does. 

The writers and directors of the movie are Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. They wrote A Quiet Place and worked on those films. I haven’t seen that movie, but it’s widely regarded as one of the best horror films of the past 10 years. They’re obviously some of the names in the horror genre that you want to keep your eye out for. The script is so greatly written where like I said earlier, the scary elements of the movie comes from the dialogue you can’t have without a good script. The movie constantly raises questions about religion and a character’s faith that it makes you think. Also with the script, it sets up all of these pieces in the first act of the movie that you know are going to come back into play later on, but you’re not sure how. Then every one of these things set up has big pay off and it’s done in a satisfying way by the end of it. It’s a greatly crafted script that has set up, pay off, and thrills are built into it. This is easily one of the best scripts of the year and one of the best horror scripts of recent memory. Even with their direction, there’s a lot of very clever and unique things they do. Where in certain scenes, the camera is spinning around the characters. Or even there’s a scene with a candle where it’s moving, but with the way it’s done the characters see the reveal seconds before the audience does because of it’s shot. It’s a movie that has a great script, a great premise, with great direction. 

Another person you have to give a lot of credit to is of course Hugh Grant. We’ve all loved Hugh Grant for the last 30 years as a great romantic comedy star. He built his career around all of these fantastic romantic comedies. This is such a different role and character for him, it’s the polar opposite of everything that you’d expect from him. What makes him fantastic is that he never has this creepy or evil face in the movie. The creepiness side of the character comes from the way that Hugh Grant speaks and the script that he’s given. He has all of the charm that you’d expect from Hugh Grant, but with a horror edge to it, not a comedy one. I think it’s unfortunate that the awards shows tend to overlook horror movies because I think Hugh Grant is worthy of an Oscar nomination. He gives one of the best performances of the year and one of the best horror performances of the last several years. It’s probably the best performance that I’ve seen from Hugh Grant, it’s that good and so horrifying. It seems like over the last several years, he’s been having a bit of a career resurgence and starring in bigger movies. I hope that means he gets more job opportunities and I hope he does more horror movies. Because this movie shows that he can do horror and he can do horror really well. 

Finally, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are the two women in the movie, who are also fantastic. I don’t think they’re close to that same level that Grant is on, but for what they’re doing they do a very solid job. What I appreciated about their characters is that they represent how two different people would respond in this situation. Thatcher’s character is the more fighting one where she’s the one that’s confronting Hugh Grant more, she’s the one that’s firing back at him. East is more the subtle character, she’s the more scared character that doesn’t really want to confront Hugh Grant. They represent what certain people would feel in this situation. They play off of each other really well, they have a great chemistry with one another and they complement one another nicely. 

The Bad

Given this review, you can probably guess that I really dug this movie. So there’s not a whole lot about this movie that was bad and didn’t work for me. One of the things that I heard going into this movie was the final 5-10 minutes weren’t the best and especially when that’s where we’re given answers as to what happened. Throughout the movie it raises a lot of questions and even Hugh Grant’s character is asking “what’s the one true religion?”, and that answer is given in the third act but I don’t think it’s the most satisfying. I felt like there was a different way they could have answered it that made it more satisfying. This didn’t ruin the movie for me, I thought it was great from beginning to end. I don’t fully know what the other direction they could have gone in was. But I do wish it something else that had some more punch to it. 

Final Thoughts: Heretic is easily one of the biggest surprises of 2024 for me. I thought this was a great horror movie that’s scary because it makes you think and gets in your head. The writing and direction by Beck and Woods is fantastic, this has one of the best horror scripts of recent years. And Hugh Grant is fantastic as always, but this is a different type of fantastic. If you’re a Hugh Grant fan and you love horror movies, this is a must watch. It’s such an interesting horror film. 

The Score: 9.0/10 (A-)