by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, Topher Grace, Elle Young
Intro:
… a smart, tense, unpredictable and engaging horror flick with a lot on its mind.
Religion means many things to many people. To the devout, it is a source of comfort and peace, a warm assurance that life has meaning and there’s a grand design to that which seems chaotic and random. Sadly, it also gives fundamentalists an excuse to trample all over people’s civil rights and, in extreme cases, to murder those who believe differently. Non-believers, on the other hand, tend to skew towards a love of science and logic, using that which can be seen and touched to explain the larger mysteries. Unfortunately, taken to its extreme, atheists can be the most tedious wankers you’ve ever met, using their lack of belief as a cudgel to mock and judge and generally be an enormous pain in the arse. Belief or its lack can both be weaponised, an idea that the latest A24 film, Heretic, explores to heady effect.
Heretic is the story of two young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons), Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East). These fresh-faced true believers are trying to recruit new souls to their kooky church, their latest potential acquisition the charming Englishman, Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). At first, Reed appears to be erudite, a bit muddle headed and sincere, however, as the conversation heads indoors, things take… a darker turn. And very soon, Sisters Barnes and Paxton will have to confront the origin of their beliefs, the nature of organised religion and their own mortality.
In other words, shit pops off and it gets really nasty.
The excellent trailer for Heretic paints the film as a slick, perhaps slightly familiar, cat and mouse thriller. And while the actual film certainly contains aspects of that, it’s anything but generic. For much of the film’s tense runtime, Heretic is an engaging discussion. A talky, fascinating exploration of the nature of deity worship and why human beings still choose to believe despite all the evidence to the contrary. This could have made the film profoundly dull, but thanks to a sharp script from writer/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, and genuinely stunning performances by Hugh Grant, Sophia Thatcher and Chloe East, this is a riveting time at the movies. Plus, it should be noted, that while a lot of the movie is talking, when it comes time for the film to deliver on its horrific promise, it does so with merciless enthusiasm.
Also, and for real, you are not ready for Hugh Grant’s performance.
Heretic is a smart, tense, unpredictable and engaging horror flick with a lot on its mind. Thanks to effective slowburn direction and wildly excellent work from its three leads, it has cemented itself as a great genre movie in a year already chockers with excellent ones. Probably not for the terminally pious or those who prefer their fright flicks to focus on jump scares over deeper chills, but for everyone else, Heretic might just make a believer out of you.
