Film Review: Heretic
Going to keep this spoiler free.
Heretic is a horror thriller and it’s one of the more cerebral, tense, and unique films of the year. It focuses on three characters in a single location and thematically explores belief and religion.
Hugh Grant stands out in this very strange role. He’s recently turned in some performances that subvert expectation, such as a flirty gay gangster in The Gentleman. But this role is quite unlike anything he’s done before.
Grant plays a man living in a semi-rural mountainous area in the US. He’s paid a visit by two young Mormon missionary girls to get information about joining their church. From there, creepy tension builds, and things get weird.
There’s discussion about the differences between religions, religion’s purpose, and there’s some unexpected pop culture references. If you are sick of action and superhero blockbusters, you’ll probably like Heretic.
As enjoyable as it is, there are some issues. The first half of the film is much better than the second half. Tension is built superbly in the first hour. Once the story moves into the third act however, it slows down and becomes just a bit too twisty for my liking.
The intellectual talk around religion is well done but not exactly novel. I was reminded of a couple of films when watching this.
The first is The Man From Earth, a sci-fi flick from 2007 that like Heretic, benefits from being watched without knowing much about the plot.
The other film I thought of is called Zeitgeist: The Movie, a conspiracy-laden documentary, also coincidentally from 2007. This documentary’s take on 9/11 and the US federal reserve is wrong, but also fun and thought-provoking. The first part of the documentary is a dive into the history of religion, and it’s mostly accurate.
Heretic covers similar ground as those films but does it with aplomb. Visually, the film is gorgeous, with certain shots being framed like paintings.
The writer and director duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods previously wrote A Quiet Place and 65, both movies that I enjoyed.
Films like this deserve to do well, marrying high production value with a plot that keeps you guessing and doesn’t feel like you’ve seen it before.