Summary
Hugh Grant’s unsettling charm pulls us into a darkly clever game of faith and fear.
The arc of Hugh Grant’s career is worthy of a film of its own, evolving from beloved rom-com prince to type-breaking heavies and monsters. With Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ HERETIC, he uses our fondness for his earlier roles to draw us completely into this darker world.
Sisters Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Paxton (Chloe East), two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are attempting to convert new recruits. But after arriving at the home of Mr Reed (Hugh Grant), their faith is tested as they begin to realise that Reed’s cosy sweaters and promise of pie are not what they seem.
Like Reed, HERETIC has much more going on beneath the surface than it initially appears. What could have been a straightforward women-in-peril survival horror is deftly transformed into a psychological game of cat-and-mouse for most of the film. Grant’s character remains genuinely likeable at times, and even as his more sinister nature emerges, he’s the sort who happily uses Monopoly and Jar Jar Binks as analogies for organised religion.
Even when danger seems inevitable, we keep thinking everything might be alright. Like the characters of Barnes and Paxton, flawlessly played by Thatcher and East, screenwriters Woods and Beck give us the option to either take Reed at face value or question everything we see. It’s as if the film itself is part of Reed’s elaborate game, testing the viewer’s beliefs while anticipating our every reaction.
This is the essence of Reed as a villain. Unlike, say, The Saw franchise – which offers captives the hope of escape in exchange for bodily dismemberment – Reed’s menace lies almost entirely in his plainness of language. He tells us what to expect, even mansplaining the genre to his captives. This is where the film may flag briefly, especially when it leans more on oratory than exploration.
Yet there are moments of unbearable tension as we try to second-guess his next move. Under Chung Chung-hoo’s deft photographic eye, Beck and Woods skilfully use light and shadow in only a handful of locations, maintaining an atmosphere of unease. The constant dripping of water near a light source, for instance, resembles sparks flying.
After the disappointing 65, this is one of the most impressive returns to form in recent memory. HERETIC does not set out to revolutionise the horror genre, but I was nevertheless glued to the screen for its duration – and I may never look at blueberry pie in the same way again.
2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods | WRITERS: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods | CAST: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East | DISTRIBUTOR: A24 (USA), Roadshow Films (Australia) | RUNNING TIME: 111 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8 November 2024 (USA), 28 November 2024 (Australia)
