“Heretic” (2024) is a puzzle that I did not want to solve. Two young Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), visit Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), after he lures them to his home under false pretenses. Once they enter, they cannot get out the front door or make a call using their cell phone. As they go deeper into his house to find a way out, he plays mind games with them. Will they beat him at his own game?
The main attraction is the outstanding cast. Ever since Grant’s real-life transgressions, he leaned into that persona and transformed from heartthrob to rake, which has made him more fun to watch. As Mr. Reed, he seems charming, harmless and quaint until he does not. He pushes the boundaries verbally, but because he never overplays his physical advantage—he maintains distance, a conversational tone and either keeps his hands full or stands behind objects to not appear as if he is going to strike. He smiles, but not with his eyes, and is constantly calculating. It is a great performance because it is easy to hope that there is a point behind his bloviating, and he is not just another man who likes to treat women sadistically, which will also keep the audience hanging on longer than they should before the film overplays its hand and gets redundant.
Thatcher is a strong actor who deserves better material, but she does not mind performing as if it matters. She was the best part of another disappointing horror film, “The Boogeyman” (2023), where she played the elder daughter keeping the family going despite a family tragedy and an otherworldly tribulation. As Sister Barnes, she is the more experienced and successful missionary who is a true believer, but not someone who ignores the world around her. Thatcher conveys Sister Barnes’ pain and fury as she realizes that Mr. Reed is taking advantage of their circumstance and is rude. Early on, she begins to call him on his bullshit. When he tries to engage in apologetics [that really should never be engaged in because it never goes anywhere but should definitely be abandoned in one’s twenties or after graduating college], she shows that she is not just converting people using cheap emotionalism and sentimentality. She throws cold water on his attempts to run mental circles around them and plays the game her way.
East has a talent for playing kooky religious women in her memorable role as the Christian girl who has the hots for Jesus and the protagonist in “The Fabelmans” (2022). As Sister Paxton, she still seems like a kid in the way that she innocently responds to everything. When she ministers to people, she rushes through her mental script, but when she engages people, she is so bubbly and adorable that it takes a special sack of shit to want to rip the wings off this butterfly, which she likens herself to and is a periodic theme throughout the film in the dialogue and visually. At first, she wants to appease Mr. Reed, but under Sister Barnes’ tutelage, she begins to find her footing and understand how to navigate a dangerous situation without playing his game. She feels no shame about her naivete or lack of philosophical naval gazing, which makes her engaging, relatable and aspirational in a day and age where everyone pretends to know more than they do—present company included.
Disclaimer: a belligerent jackass tried to start a fight with several people at the Boston screening, which made it impossible to focus on the dialogue heavy film, but even without the distraction, I was never into apologetics or evangelizing. After a while I lose interest, and at the end of the day, I don’t care to go further than a single round at most, and even then, half-heartedly. If I didn’t believe in God, I’d never talk about Him, so I found myself checking out of “Heretic” as they got into the debate. I’m not entering a strange man’s house even if his wife was there, and if I did, I’m not going any deeper. I’ll just sit on this couch until that timer goes off. You will have to drag me back there. Have people not heard of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, Wanda Ileen Barzee and Brian David Mitchell, who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart, or Nancy and Phillip Garrido, who kidnapped and enslaved Jaycee Dugard?
If you want an insightful analysis of the movie’s premise that engages with these aspects of the narrative, please check out Erin Underwood’s review, because she really engaged with and enjoyed the movie. As I do in real life, I was paying more attention to actions over words, and he seemed conventional, especially as he offers zero backstory for his interest in studying multiple religions. He just seemed like a standard dude who wants to trap women in his house and talk them to death. He promises to reveal his truth by drawing them deeper into his house.
Aside from the innate lack of interest in the depicted dynamic and inability to suspend disbelief, “Heretic” loses steam once the three are no longer in the same room or switches focus away from the interior of the house. The film abandons the battle of wits for more basic scares and a little comedic break thanks to Elder Kennedy (an unrecognizable and unproblematic Topher Grace) staying on message and trying to convert Mr. Reed. The story never recovers once the trio are reunited, and the inhospitality escalates. At some point, the banter gives way to become an elaborate, tropey escape room modeled after Dante’s Inferno, which was grating at the end. There is something inherently dissatisfying about setting up a Rube Goldbergian snare then not fully showing how he negotiates his puzzles. In the end, the pair of targets perform more like detectives trying to solve the crime committed against them. It is also one of those movies that stops obeying basic biological rules when people get seriously injured and are somehow able to keep going, especially their aging host. These kinds of antics are jarring in a film so dependent on the veneer of intellectual discourse. It may be the point to show that all the talk is just smoke and mirrors, but it still felt cheap and disappointing.
Co-directors and cowriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are visually pitch perfect. The camera movement is as disorienting as Mr. Reed’s incessant verbal bait dangling his truth. It turns in circles or swings from left to right to evoke a feeling of impending doom. There are so many uncomfortable closeups that the dwelling feels claustrophobic before they plunge deeper into Mr. Reed’s inner sanctum. In “Heretic,” the duo are better directors than writers though they did succeed in establishing a franchise with “A Quiet Place” (2018) when they wrote then sold the screenplay. They could just be one hit wonders because they were also behind “65” (2020) and the aforementioned “The Boogeyman.”
There is an audience for “Heretic”: young men, philosophy and/or apologetics afficionados from either side of the divide or people who care less about the material than the cast. Also people who are familiar with Mormon culture will have an advantage. When Mr. Reed offers them a Coca-Cola, I did not know that it was rude to offer caffeine and sugar to Mormons though I did know about the caffeine in the coffee context. Also does not pie have sugar? Is the sugar ban food specific or based on serving size?
“Heretic” is a film with a strong first act that slowly dissolves over time. Despite strong performances and chilling visuals, the story never fulfills its potential and disguises the standard bad guy with a veneer of erudite musings. If the intent was to make the point that bad men’s blathering covers for base, tired and trite desires then it partially succeeded but needed to do more to let the moviegoers know that they were consciously modeling their movie using the same techniques as Mr. Reed.
