‘Heretic’: Toronto Review

Dirs/scr: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods. US. 2024. 110mins 

In the elegant but ultimately empty horror-thriller Heretic, two young Mormon missionaries match wits with a creepy middle-aged man who traps them in his house – although for most of the film’s runtime it is unclear if he plans to murder them or merely talk them to death. The latest from writing-directing team Scott Beck and Bryan Woods stars Hugh Grant as the initially pleasant homeowner who engages these missionaries  in a debate about religion. But the man’s rhetoric isn’t merely academic — indeed, he seems to want to teach these young women about the foolishness of their faith, their very lives seemingly hanging in the balance.

Grant’s villain might be cinema’s most evil mansplainer

Premiering as a Toronto Special Presentation, this A24 feature opens in the US on November 15, with a UK release scheduled for the following Friday. Beck and Woods, who last made the 2023 Adam Driver sci-fi film 65 ($61 million worldwide), are probably best known as the original writers on A Quiet Place, so horror fans should take note of Heretic’s frighteningly simple premise. And Grant’s change-of-pace role as the disturbed tormenter will further boost awareness.

Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are looking to convert some souls in suburban Colorado when they arrive at a house whose owner had made an inquiry with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. They introduce themselves to the kindly Mr. Reed (Grant), who invites them into his warm abode so they can get out of the rain. The missionaries are wary — they are not supposed to be in a house alone with a man — but Reed insists his wife is in the other room, and they accept his offer.

It will not take audiences (or Barnes and Paxton) long to deduce that Reed has no wife, and he has no desire to seek spiritual enlightenment. Instead, he wants to play an elaborate game with these women in order to debunk their belief system. Insisting that they can leave any time — despite the fact that, for complicated reasons, the front door won’t open — Reed always sports a weathered smile, but Barnes and Paxton feel trapped and fearful of what he might do.

Heretic means to puncture the foundations of organised religion, with the verbose, haughty Reed incorporating history and philosophy to back up his case. His arguments have a fanciful air, such as when he draws a parallel between how new pop songs borrow from older ones, and the ways that the same stories appear in different faiths. Indeed, Grant’s villain might be cinema’s most evil mansplainer, considering that much of Heretic consists of Reed lecturing these scared missionaries who are desperate to concede his point so they can escape. But Reed won’t let them go that easily — there is something more crucial he wants them to understand about the idiocy of their faith. Realising they cannot walk out the front door, Barnes and Paxton go deeper into the home, and Reed offers them a test to determine which of two possible back doors might lead to freedom. 

Production designer Philip Messina and cinematographer Chung-Hoon Chung drape the frame in perpetual gloom. Reed’s low-lit house feels nightmarish, even though the film barely resorts to any jump scares, and, as the women descend deeper into the domicile, the more terrifying it becomes. Heretic has been crafted with expert care, and the strong performances help carry this dialogue-driven thriller.

The problem is that the film’s ideas are not particularly stimulating. Reed wants to argue these women out of their faith, and Grant is skilfull in his delivery, but his commentary is hardly novel and his larger observations about society don’t seem nearly as profound as the writer-directors believe. And because so much of this intimate piece relies on the sizzle of the exchanges between this suburban monster and these sheltered missionaries, Heretic fails to enrapture (or horrify).