heretic movie reviews

‘Heretic’ Review: Hugh Grant Is Genteelly Terrifying as a Creep Hell-Bent on Converting Others to His ‘One True Religion’

The movie’s two young missionaries should have thought twice about entering the elaborate trap set for them in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ sleek theological mind game.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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You’ve heard of “faith-based movies”? Well, “ Heretic ” is essentially the opposite. In A24’s thorny, impossible-to-anticipate thriller, co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (best known as the writers of “A Quiet Place”) ask audiences to accept Hugh Grant as a demented religious scholar so extreme, he’s arranged to trap two Mormon missionaries in his house and torment them into rejecting their faith in Joseph Smith and all his teachings.

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Talky and thought-provoking, yet shallower than it sounds at first, Beck and Woods’ screenplay has more on its mind than most horror movies. But why is “Heretic” a horror movie at all? The co-directors’ ideas surely would have been more effective as a university-set tête-à-tête — a fiery back-and-forth between two self-righteous young pupils and their smugly skeptical professor, perhaps — but start to feel not just nihilistic but borderline irresponsible once Mr. Reed’s intentions become clear.

But maybe it’s not completely irrelevant. Neither Sister Paxton nor Sister Barnes has the personal experience to say whether their Magnum theory is true, but they’re skeptical enough to question the sales pitch. That’s what Mr. Reed wants them to do as well: question the pitch. He gave his contact info to the Mormon missionaries. He invited them into his home. And once they cross that threshold — a captive audience to his mostly one-sided theological debate — he wants his guests to acknowledge that they are just glorified salespeople, spreading the word about a bogus religion.

For most of “Heretic,” Mr. Reed isn’t really speaking to the sisters. What interest could he possibly have in converting them to his way of thought? Rather, he’s addressing the audience, who are likely more willing to agree with him than a pair of door-to-door evangelists indoctrinated into their parents’ faith. (In Sister Barnes’ case, it’s slightly more complicated, as she had a near-death experience when younger that sets up one of the film’s less-developed dead-ends.) Meanwhile, Beck and Woods keep us squirming by drawing out scenes and delaying whatever fate awaits these two missionaries.

Once Mr. Reed lures the girls to his inner sanctum, he presents them with a test. The room has two “exit” doors, on which he scrawls the words “BELIEF” and “DISBELIEF” in chalk. Choose correctly, and they’re free to leave … or so he says. But can they trust him? His home has been expressly engineered for this purpose, with doors and windows that lock and metal-plated ceilings and walls that block cellphone signals. (And who might rescue them anyway? A barely recognizable Topher Grace makes a brief appearance as Elder Kennedy, who’s not much help.)

Mr. Reed seems to have thought of everything. In this space at least, he’s free to play God — or pedagogue, as he seems to prefer, preaching what he calls the “one true religion.” Mr. Reed uses pop-culture references to make his case, suggesting that all religions are “iterations” of one another, the way the Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe” inspired Radiohead’s “Creep,” which in turn likely influenced Lana Del Rey’s “Get Free.” But what does that prove? The differences between religions are often more revealing than their similarities.

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false and by rulers as useful,” spoke Seneca, summing up most of the discussion (and dissection) Mr. Reed has in store. He’s the smartest person in the room, and yet, something doesn’t quite add up in the way he tries to demonstrate how such systems are used to manipulate and control the masses, forcing the filmmakers to resort to scuzzy horror-movie gimmicks — and a convoluted stunt Mr. Reed calls his “miracle” — to keep us hooked.

Come to find, fear and religion aren’t so different. Both rely on what we believe … and it takes a leap to accept the stammering fellow from “Four Weddings and a Funeral” as someone this twisted. (There will be more funerals than weddings this time around.) Go with it, and “Heretic” can be an entertaining ride. It may not change your mind about religion, but you’ll never think of blueberry pie the same way again.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 8, 2024. Running time: 111 MIN.

• Production: An A24 release of a Beck Woods, Shiny Penny Prods. production, in association with Catchlight Studios. Producers: Stacey Sher, Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, Julia Glausi, Jeanette Volturno.
• Crew: Directors, writers: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods. Camera: Chung-Hoon Chung. Editor: Justin Li. Music: Chris Bacon.
• With: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, Topher Grace, Elle Young.

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Menendez brothers resentencing supported by l.a. district attorney george gascón, ‘heretic’ review: hugh grant’s chilling performance gives religious horror film some sinister edge.

Two Mormon evangelists are tasked with converting a reclusive older man in 'A Quiet Place' duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods' feature co-starring Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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But Mr. Reed is different. He invites Sisters Paxton and Barnes to come inside, assures them that his wife is home (Mormon women can’t be alone with a man, they say) and even offers them blueberry pie. Never mind that his movements suggest some malevolence, that he can’t stop staring at a surgical mark on Sister Barnes’ arm or that his questions edge into more personal territory. So rare is his attentiveness to faith — he takes out his own annotated copy of the Mormon bible — that Sisters Paxton and Barnes decide to disregard their anxieties. That, of course, is a mistake. 

The hostility of the space becomes more apparent the longer Sisters Paxton and Barnes chat with Mr. Reed. His enthusiasm verges on pushy, a sign that alerts Barnes, especially, to the danger of the situation. By the time the women realize they are in peril — the doors won’t open, the pie doesn’t exist — it is too late. Mr. Reed reveals himself to be a kind of religion obsessive, a self-taught scholar of faith and belief. His studies have led him to some disturbing conclusions, which he maps out for Paxton and Barnes in one of Heretic ’s most fun and distinctive scenes. All that can be said is that it involves Monopoly, Jar Jar Binks, Radiohead and the Hollies.

Grant delivers his verbose musings with the composure of a professor and the velocity of a fanatic. He paces around the back room, where he has corralled his guests, and unveils props to support his points. Chung uses overhead shots to capture Mr. Reed’s desktop — a neatly organized tableau of religious texts and versions of the Monopoly board game  — which recalls a Renaissance triptych. 

Like The Assessment , another offering at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Heretic is most compelling as a three-character chamber drama. The charade between Mr. Reed, Paxton and Barnes helps to distracts from the screenplay, which wobbles under analytical pressure. Beck and Wood, at first, seem intent on interrogating the pitfalls of modern religion, but their narrative never goes all the way in its criticism. Once Mr. Reed moves on from his speeches and into more conventional horror-villain machinations, so too does Heretic distance itself from its most fiery theses. While it doesn’t totally diminish the thrill of watching Grant’s character revel in his own supposed cleverness, it does make the enterprise disappointingly shallow. A thread with a Mormon leader pursuing an earnest search for the missing girls similarly goes nowhere beyond a cheap joke done better earlier in the film. 

The relationship between Paxton, Barnes and Mr. Reed remains the most absorbing thread throughout Heretic . Even when the screenplay heads into deflating territory — trading potential acerbity for more neutral conclusions — their cat-and-mouse game keeps us curious and faithful.

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Two young religious women are drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse in the house of a strange man. Two young religious women are drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse in the house of a strange man. Two young religious women are drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse in the house of a strange man.

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Hugh Grant Is an Unholy Creep in Heretic

Debating religion in the broadest and most casual of terms—is God real? What is the difference between myth and gospel?—is fun, in the liberal-arts dorm room, early Bill Maher, everyone-mostly-agrees kind of way. Someone brings up the many flood stories that exist outside of the Bible; another person mentions the pagan traditions woven into Christianity’s. A smug, Dan Brown-esque consensus is reached, and then you open another bottle of Yellowtail.

Of course, the more fraught kind of debate—with people who really mean it and for whom the stakes are quite high—is less of a good time. That’s the kind we find in the new film Heretic , which premiered here at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday. For its characters, Heretic is no fun at all. The audience, though, might feel transported back to those pseudointellectual adolescent conversations.

Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods , Heretic is an alternately clever and silly horror-thriller that wants to have a kicky, pointed dialogue about faith vs. reason, free will vs. preordination. It maybe doesn’t arrive anywhere profound, but it has a good time laying out its thesis.

The terrific Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher play young Mormon missionaries evangelizing in a small, picturesque mountain town. East’s Sister Paxton is the more timid, naive one, while Thatcher’s Sister Barnes has a bit of flint to her, something flickering in her eyes that looks a little like doubt. Yet she also has a much higher conversion rate than Paxton, who is looking to land her first baptism. While most locals are resistant (or outright hostile) to this proselytization, the women have at least compiled a small list of the potentially interested.

Which brings them to the home of one Mr. Reed, a friendly and solicitous older chap played with dark charm by Hugh Grant . A storm is whipping up outside his quaint cottage, and he urges his visitors inside, where he promises to listen to their pitch and ask some questions. He seems like a dream candidate: affable, learned in theology but still curious. Naturally, things soon go horribly wrong.

The first part of the film is staged as somewhere between Socratic debate and lecture, as Reed prods the women about their convictions in increasingly sinister ways. The writing here is snappy, pop-literate, pleasingly twisty and ornate. Grant is having a grand old time, using that Oxford sophistication of his to thrill us to Reed’s steadily damning dissection of the world’s monotheistic beliefs. Thatcher proves a capable foil for his line of attack, while East credibly ratchets up the alarm.

The filming is crisp and satisfying too, effectively closing the walls in around Paxton and Barnes as they slowly come to the realization that they’ve wandered into a dreadful trap. The production design of Reed’s ominous home is detailed and thoughtful; it becomes the physical manifestation of a descent into hell.

Once that descent truly begins, Heretic ’s wheels start rattling just a bit. Beck and Woods know they need some creepy, jumpy visuals for the trailer, and so some more outsized elements are introduced. One longs for the simpler mechanics of the film’s first half, though the three performers keep things engaging, as does the unfolding of Woods and Beck’s puzzle box script.

The film is interested in the tenets and dogma and limits of religion, yes, but more so in its practical effect on the world, particularly on women. It is a film about manipulation, and about the ceding of autonomy to a higher power. Heretic might say that such ceding is often done under duress, not of ecstatic free will—if such a thing as free will even exists.

Have we seen versions of this theme before? Sure. But Heretic presents them in some novel forms. And it is refreshing to see a horror movie—especially of the cool, meme-able A24 varietal—that has old, old social issues on its mind, rather than more zeitgeisty hot topics. Of course religion is still a mightily pertinent matter, but Heretic wants to kick at the foundation of all this, the core principle, rather than its contemporary mutations.

It’s also quite nice to see a horror movie that is so largely focused on talk. And what a talker Grant is, during this ongoing realignment of his star profile. If someone had told me back in the floppy-haired 1990s days, or the rakish early 2000s ones, that Grant would someday arrive at this kind of role, I’d have scarcely believed them. But Grant continues to prove himself an adept character actor—he may always be playing some version of Hugh Grant, but he’s been ever resourceful in bending the trope of himself into various shapes. It’s not quite transubstantiation, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a small miracle, either.

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Hugh Grant is absolutely terrifying in A24’s horror flick Heretic

The former rom-com leading man transforms into a theological debate bro..

By Andrew Webster , an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

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We’re in a pretty great period for established actors doing weird shit. Obviously, there’s Nic Cage, playing everything from an ancient vampire to a deranged satanist to an average man who haunts your dreams . But the likes of Amy Adams ( mom who transforms into a dog ) and Hugh Grant ( oompa loompa and evil wizard ) are also in experimental eras. Now, Grant has taken perhaps his most surprising role: the antagonist in A24’s horror movie Heretic from codirectors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Even more surprising? He’s scary as hell.

Heretic is centered on two young Mormon missionaries — Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) — who aren’t having much luck preaching the good word door-to-door. So, when they meet Mr. Reed (Grant), who is extremely interested in a religious discussion, they let their guard down a little too much. But the bad signs are there: a wife that never seems to appear, a fake blueberry pie baking in the oven. By the time they realize they need to get out of there, it’s obviously too late.

Mr. Reed doesn’t immediately get violent or aggressive. Instead, he turns the tables. After outlining his beliefs — namely that all religion is nonsense, no different than fast food or Monopoly or pop music — he becomes the one trying to convert his new captives. Barnes is defiant, staying true to her beliefs despite Reed dissuading her, while Paxton initially just says whatever she thinks will get her out of the house.

What makes this so scary, before the film’s psychological scares eventually turn gruesome and violent, is Grant himself. Part of the reason he’s played the lead in so many romantic comedies is that he has a very particular bumbling charm. Grant isn’t the perfect, chiseled leading man. He’s awkward and comforting in a way that puts you at ease. As Mr. Reed, this disarming nature turns into a trap.

I won’t spoil too much about what he’s selling, but Mr. Reed is essentially a theological debate bro. He’s extremely well-versed in seemingly all of the world’s religions, and he wants someone to challenge his ideas — not to change his mind but so that he can prove how smart he is by winning the argument. He has spent his life anticipating questions and finding his answers. This pathological need to be right is pushed to its extreme as Heretic moves along; it starts out a little silly and funny but eventually is just terrifying.

And it’s echoed in Mr. Reed’s own home: a warm and cozy front room gives way to an unsettling labyrinth that puts Barbarian to shame. The further into its depths you see, the more fucked up Mr. Reed’s philosophies become. He just can’t be wrong, and he’ll do anything to keep that from happening. Those lengths range from casual murder to singing Radiohead’s “Creep” despite having a terrible voice.

The interesting part of Heretic isn’t its views on religion — which, it seems, boil down to all of them being equally bad, though Reed’s solution turns out to be far worse — but rather how Grant is the ideal vehicle to explore how boring evil can initially seem. He’s a bookish nerd in a cardigan with dogeared copies of The Bible and The Book of Mormon . He offers you pie and drinks when you enter his home. He’s Hugh Grant: he’s not scary at all. But then he suddenly is, driven by the force of his twisted beliefs. And that turn to terror is as scary as any fictional monster.

Heretic hits theaters on November 15th.

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Heretic Review: Hugh Grant Horror Deserves Your Leap Of Faith [TIFF 2024]

• Some of the best-written dialogue of any movie in recent memory
• Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, and Chloe East play off each other brilliantly
• The ending really stretches suspension of disbelief

I love it when filmmakers can surprise me. "Heretic," written and directed by the duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, surprises on multiple levels. I knew Beck and Woods could write a good horror movie due to their script for "A Quiet Place," but that was a specific type of horror: a high concept mainstream crowdpleaser focused on funhouse frights over big ideas. I absolutely hated "65,"  the Beck and Woods-directed flop that somehow made "spaceman Adam Driver fights dinosaurs" boring. Neither my best nor worst experiences with this team could prepare me for their work on "Heretic."

Neither will the trailer really prepare you for what's in store — though by now, moviegoers should know that trailers for A24 horror films always make them look more traditional than they actually are. In terms of the basics of the plot, the trailer gives an accurate summary: two Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), visit the house of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), only to find themselves trapped inside and put up to a test of their faith. What the trailer can't get across is how this story plays out — as a wordy, intellectual debate about the nature of religion ... and music ... and board games ...

Especially for its first hour, "Heretic" is a movie of conversations. Funny, suspenseful, revealing, challenging conversations. And the writing is just fantastic, at different moments recalling the works of Quentin Tarantino, Jordan Peele, and Richard Linklater. I had no clue Beck and Woods had this sort of script in them. Mostly a three-hander, all of the lead actors do an excellent job with this material. The only thing holding "Heretic" back from instant classic status is its final act, where some of the big secret reveals end up a bit disappointing after so much great build-up.

A play of ideas, with great characters

In the opening scene, Sisters Barnes and Paxton are talking to each other about the moment that convinced them the Mormon Church was right. For Paxton, it was watching a pornographic video — "not intentionally," of course — and thinking about what she read as a moment of embarrassment and regret for the video's star. Barnes doesn't have a story like that, but she does have a stronger record of converting new members to the church. Paxton feels mocked by "that South Park musical," while Barnes thinks the songs are funny. At a glance, it would be easy to peg the wholesome-looking Paxton as the true believer and the goth-y Barnes as the skeptic, but both women have their own complicated yet committed relationships with their faith.

Speaking of complicated, Mr. Reed knows more about Mormonism, and seemingly every other religion, than the missionaries themselves — and in his extensive study, he's determined that all of these religions are wrong. Is he simply a hardcore atheist in the Richard Dawkins mode, or is something stranger afoot, with his insinuations that he's finally discovered "the one true religion"? Is the grace the missionaries give him, even when it becomes more and more obvious he means them ill, indicative of the problems with religion itself?

Hugh Grant is clearly having a blast in his villain era. From "Cloud Atlas" to "Paddington 2" to "Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves," the former rom-com icon has been at his best when he gets to play evil. "Heretic" is his first foray into horror since "The Lair of the White Worm" 36 years ago, and with that comes his most impressive villain performance yet (one context-free tease: he does a Jar Jar Binks impression). The funny thing is a large section of the audience will find themselves with up to 90% of what Mr. Reed says — Grant may be among this crowd, noting at the film's Toronto International Film Festival premiere it was easy to get into character as a nonbeliever himself. But then there's the remaining 10% that will have even anti-theists surprised how much they're sympathizing with the Mormon girls.

What's in the basement?

So we have to talk a bit about the ending of "Heretic" to acknowledge why it doesn't completely work. The final act piles on twists, many of them reminiscent of ones from other movies (I won't name titles to avoid spoilers, but I'm thinking in particular about an older work from a recent Oscar winner crossed with a more cult horror film from a couple years ago, with a red herring threatening to enter the territory of another recent A24 mind-bender). The derivative nature of these twists isn't the problem — if anything, that's fitting for a movie preoccupied with the subject of derivation. It's more that, as presented here, the way these twists all come together will  really strain your suspension of disbelief.

Then again, maybe that's also fitting for a movie about why someone might choose to believe in the seemingly unbelievable. By this point, "Heretic" has been such a fun time that if the destination can't measure up to the journey, it's not the biggest problem in the world, but it is the big issue keeping this from being a full-on 10/10 rave review. And even when the narrative logic gets messy, the conclusion still finds satisfying ways to play off running gags and character moments while also introducing new wrinkles to both the pro- and anti-religion arguments.

Those arguments are sure to continue among moviegoers long after the film ends. People with completely different beliefs and backgrounds will come to this film and take away different things; some might find their viewpoints challenged, others might find them strengthened. Both the protagonists and the antagonist of "Heretic" think they have the correct answers about the nature of God, but in the end, "Heretic" has no intention of giving such solutions to you. It merely seeks to provoke — and to entertain. On both levels, it's a sinfully sweet success.

"Heretic" premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It opens in theaters on November 15.

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Heretic Reviews

If there was justice for horror films Grant would be in the Best Actor conversation with his deliciously wicked turn, but it stands as his best showcase yet

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 24, 2024

Its first half works beautifully as a psychological thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Oct 20, 2024

Calling this film a little miracle may fly in the face of what Scott Beck & Bryan Woods have accomplished here, but this a dark comic gem of anti-faith-based horror with a central performance by Hugh Grant that deserves some worship.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 18, 2024

There have been hundreds of horror flicks about religious zealots using violence to get their way, but this clever flick is more of a mind game, a study in not just what stories we’re told but who has been telling them to us.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 11, 2024

Heretic thrusts taboo theological questions into the spotlight as the protagonists attempt to escape a trap in this taut, menacing thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Oct 6, 2024

It’s a recipe for setting an audience on edge, and the more it simmers, the more Heretic proves itself a compelling, inventive thriller driven by three great central performances.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Oct 1, 2024

Hugh Grant makes a more menacing and interesting villain than the much-hyped performance of Nic Cage in Longlegs.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2024

Heretic peaks as a parlor thriller where opposing individuals debate religious ideology … but more challenging genre elements fail to excite as Beck and Woods wring the spoken word dry of tension.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 26, 2024

Hugh Grant has never been as terrifying as he is in Heretic, a brilliant film that will have viewers considering their own beliefs as it explores religion as a whole.

Full Review | Sep 25, 2024

Heretic brings an incredibly sharp religious horror script to life through a chilling & charismatic performance by Hugh Grant. Most of the movie's horror and tension is achieved through dialogue and conversations about faith and power. Pure brilliance!

Full Review | Original Score: 4.75/5 | Sep 25, 2024

A fresh, intellectually stimulating, and button-pushing horror film that attempts to go beyond the conventional. It's provocative, divisive, and challenges the audience to question their own convictions when it comes to faith.

Even with a first half that’s better than the second, Heretic still has that dynamite setup going for it and plenty of fantastic beats along the way.

Full Review | Sep 24, 2024

"Heretic" continues the trend of Beck and Woods being two extremely talented movie dorks who read the room and know exactly what the audience wants, even if they don't know they want it yet.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 24, 2024

Watching Grant fence verbally with East and Thatcher – sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating, but always taking stock of his opponents’ defenses – is funny, unnerving, and oddly persuasive.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 24, 2024

It is a measure of praise for its dramatic construction and quality of dialog that, with a few reasonable tweaks, “Heretic” could easily be turned into a play.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 21, 2024

One of the big surprises of the fest, well worth seeing and a nice change-up for A24.

Full Review | Sep 19, 2024

The most uncomfortable TED talk about religion you’ll ever attend. Writers and directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods channel the same kind of gonzo energy that made films like Barbarian so great – they remember to keep their horror fun.

"Heretic" doesn't offer revelations beyond what skeptics of religion might already know, but watching Grant, clad in thick Dahmer-style glasses and grandpa sweaters as he expounds his theological theories, makes the experience worthwhile.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 19, 2024

A sinfully sweet success.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Sep 17, 2024

With a great trio of performances from Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, and an unsettling Hugh Grant, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ Heretic is a sharp philosophic-based religious thriller that shines in an anti-holy light.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 17, 2024