Last Updated on November 19, 2024 by Angel Melanson
How transgressive are horror movies these days? The heroes of Heretic, a terrific new picture from “elite” distributor A24, are two Christian teen girls with strong religious convictions who strive to reject the temptations of modern society. And the villain is scholarly atheism. Somehow we’ve pushed things so far we’re back in the 1950s. Only we’re not, because the movie is clever and nuanced and, most important of all, thrilling and a little gross. How the filmmakers threaded this needle is something of a miracle.
A recent gallup poll reports that 46 percent of Americans say religion is “very important” in their lives, with a further 26 percent saying it is “fairly important.” Save for those “faith-based” monstrosities like God’s Not Dead and War Room (which, if there’s a screening room in Hell, surely play on a loop), American movies tend not to treat this very large section of society seriously. Naturally it falls to horror movies to break the taboo.
Things kick off when two young Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Baxter (Chloe East), are making their rounds in hilly Colorado, trying to rustle up some conversions. (Yes, “that South Park musical” does come up.) Both women are driven by their faith, but there’s a Glengarry Glen Ross element here, too. Sister Baxter, the more wide-eyed of the two (recently scandalized by some pornography she barely knows how to describe), hasn’t scored a single baptism. They’ve got a lead on someone who accepted a brochure, and after a tiring day of being mocked about their “magic underwear,” they head out to his secluded home beyond a metal fence.
Answering the door is a kind British cuddle bear in a cardigan, Hugh Grant. He stammers about blueberry pie and ushers the girls in from the rain. Doctrine prevents them from entering a man’s house without a woman present (they state this with little embarrassment) but he says his wife is just in the next room. Once they cross the threshold, though, you know it’s all over.
What follows is a mix of Barbarian and Knock at the Cabin and Martyrs (though a thousand times tamer), but also extremely funny thanks to a cascade of increasingly sinister banter volleyed between Grant and the two actresses. While things eventually reach a bloody endpoint (I did, in fact, shout “ew!” at one point), this is primarily a battle of wits, in which the self-aware irrationality of faith must triumph against one man’s nihilistic interpretation of theological contradictions.
Things move slowly at first. Grant’s Mr. Reed reveals himself to be quite studied-up on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and, as the sales pitch meeting turns darker (as a storm outside rages) he expounds on all of the world’s religions and their iterations. Music junkies will enjoy a comparison of monotheism to The Hollies, Radiohead and Lana Del Rey; board game fans get a different version of the argument with Monopoly variants.
Reed presents his thesis that either God exists or he doesn’t, and either way it is unacceptable (a harsher tweak on an old Arthur C. Clarke quote), before dispatching the girls further into his house of horrors. There are certainly some far-fetched aspects to the second half of the film, including that an architect agreed to such a zany layout.
Heretic, written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (Nightlight, Haunt, 65 and co-authors of A Quiet Place), is first and foremost a terrific addition to the “don’t go in there, you idiot!” canon, but it’s also a sharp character drama about three people talking about big, bold, theological concepts. Other than looming dread, the dialogue-heavy first hour of the picture has hardly any concrete horror elements at all, until you consider that so much about religion concerns after-death experiences and other touchstones of the supernatural. (To some, after all, Christ’s resurrection is the greatest story ever told; to others it’s a zombie tale.)
What’s best though is how terrific the slow burn side—nearly a filmed play—really works. For 45 minutes or so, the tension is sustained as you watch the girls calibrate their fight or flight instincts. Both actresses are terrific, with Thatcher's Sister Barnes (a Philly transplant to Salt Lake City and convert to Mormonism after some family tragedy) analyzing each step in this evolving dance, but saying nothing. East’s Sister Baxter begins the story as something of the comic relief, an aw shucks true believer eager to live a conservative life to a pre-written script. It is to Heretic’s great credit how both actresses show growth over a movie that is set in just one night.
But the one true savior, really, is Hugh Grant, balancing between the madness of a tormentor and a theology professor. (Some with advanced degrees in the matter will say there isn’t much difference, yuk yuk yuk.) As one who loves nothing more than to stay up until 2 am and read odd historical facts on Wikipedia, I found each of his many monologues fascinating. Watching Thatcher and East browbeaten into puddles of terror, however, I could do without. Best is how Beck and Woods stick the landing. I always had faith.
