Nine years ago, A24 exploded onto the horror film scene with the contemplative and prescient sci-fi horror Ex Machina and hasn’t looked back. While A24 produces and distributes many genres of film, horror has certainly been one of its more successful areas. Most of these films distinguish themselves with a more artistic approach to horror, and A24 could even be credited for starting the trend of “elevated horror” that became a topic of debate a few years ago.
Heretic is another entry in A24’s line of elevated horror, and it has one of the more riveting and unique first halves of a horror film in a long while. Following two Mormon missionaries, the friendly and perhaps naive Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and the more guarded Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), they are out doing door-to-door evangelism and come to the home of one Mr. Reed, who had requested further information on the Church of Latter-Day Saints. As the enter his home, Mr. Reed begins to aggressively challenge their beliefs and details his deep dives into religion and the search for truth. He eventually traps them as he angrily monologues that all religions are mere iterations of other ones and wants to force them to make a choice on leaving based on their religious beliefs.
As one might guess, the first half of Heretic is a highly talky, dialogue-heavy film mostly set around the confines of a series of small rooms in a home decorated in the most stereotypically grandparent way. If this sounds dull, rest assured, it is far from it.
Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, most known for writing the Quiet Place films and directing the failed action film 65, have finally escaped to show their true potential with the backing of A24. With a steady editorial hand, Heretic is paced and cut to generate tension and excitement, framing shots in a gorgeous manner within close confines to steadily rachet up the pressure. The camera enhances the claustrophobic nature of the setting and helps put you on edge as it works in conjunction with the sound design to put you off-kilter.
A large chunk of the quality also belongs to Hugh Grant‘s performance. Grant delivers one of his career-best roles as highly polite Mr. Reed. He plays the role straight all the way through the film, which helps amp up the tension and keep the character unique. The increasingly odd and dark behaviors of Mr. Reed set the characters and audience on edge. Yet Grant keeps Mr. Reed so polite and straight-forward that they can’t help but play along with him, despite the red flags. Even as more overt behaviors emerge, he remains calm and reasonable-sounding, as though he were doing nothing at all. It’s a truly creepy performance and one Grant plays perfectly.
Heretic is also a film that rests on its challenges to organized religion and faith in general. While the quality of the film’s arguments may be questionable and the viewer’s own faith or lack thereof will likely influence the degree to which one thinks the arguments are coherent, the film can be given credit for using a crisis of belief as a form of horror. Whether one is atheist, agnostic, or otherwise, Heretic wields existential horror to have all viewers question the fear of a world where death exists. It also helps that even though Mr. Reed is depicted as a smart, domineering force, the Sisters challenge his reasoning and allow the film, for a while, to be somewhat of a battle on faith versus disbelief.
Where the film goes awry is in its second half. It embraces more stereotypical horror happenings, thrusting our heroines into dark dungeons full of creepy old people and seeming supernatural occurrences. The film’s plot also runs out of steam to some extent, perhaps inevitably heading towards an ending that feels unsatisfactory.
It also doesn’t help that the film’s ideas on religion fall into more simplistic traps by the end. The ultimate conclusions on what true religion is feel like the shallow musings of Redditors on /atheist, and even the so-called religious characters reflect only what theologically-shallow individuals might have to say on what faith means to them. While it may be too much to expect a film to deal with centuries of deeper theological and philosophical thought out there, to pretend that someone like Soren Kierkegaard hasn’t offered faith-based answers to some of the questions the film raises is a little lazy.
Despite the disappointing third act, Heretic is still a well-made work. It has some really lovely shots and cuts, reflecting true care behind the camera. Grant’s performance is excellent. Not to discount Thatcher or East, who both are quite good as well, especially East as her character turns. A24 continues to be a leader in the vanguard for horror to be more than torture porn or jumpscare fests. 2024 has been a year full of horror cinema, and it’s a relief that films like Heretic continue to be made in the face of awful movies like Afraid, Tarot, and Night Swim. For all its flaws, it is head and shoulders above those.
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