Heretic

by Mike McGranaghan

Heretic is a tantalizing entry in the subgenre of religious-themed horror. The movie has no demonic possessions or exorcisms, nor does it need them. In fact, the most frightening thing about it is often the dialogue. Filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (65) do a masterful job of generating chills from ideas. Their story asks a fundamental question: Do people actually believe in God, or do they just believe because they’ve been told to? Wherever you stand on that inquiry, the story builds to a finale that justifies your opinion while also making you slightly wonder “What if I’m wrong?”

Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) is a newbie missionary paired with the slightly more experienced Sister Paxton (Chloe East). Their job is to knock on doors to spread the Mormon gospel. The seemingly interested Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) invites the women in for a conversation, seducing them with the promise of his wife’s freshly baked blueberry pie. There is no wife, and there is no pie. Instead, Mr. Reed traps the women inside the house. The only way to escape is to choose one of two doors in his study, which he labels with the words “belief” and “disbelief.” If they choose correctly, he asserts, they will exit through the rear of his home. If not, an unknown fate awaits.

Heretic is scary because of what happens but even more scary because of what it makes you think about. Mr. Reed forces Barnes and Paxton to engage in a philosophical debate over God’s existence that incorporates elements as unlikely as the Monopoly board game and the Hollies’ song “The Air That I Breathe.” His point is to challenge them, to suggest that their faith is an idea they’ve been indoctrinated with by a church seeking to control its members. They, in turn, are devoting their lives to that faith, and it becomes clear that surviving doesn’t mean choosing the right door, it means winning the argument.

We, of course, get drawn into the debate. The impeccably written screenplay alternately challenges and comforts us, presenting thoughtful arguments for both sides. This is why it’s unnerving. Whatever you believe, it compels you to consider the opposite.

More visceral chills arrive once Paxton and Barnes choose their door and discover the horrors that await in the home’s basement. There is no predicting what happens from this stage forward. Each new development takes the missionaries – and us – deeper into a hellish nightmare that expands on the story’s themes. Heretic uses this opportunity to include a few sequences of almost stomach-churning suspense.

Hugh Grant is a revelation as Mr. Reed. In the early scenes, he does a variation of the charming persona that made him famous. Later, he flips that on its ear, suggesting menace underneath. In a clever conceit, the character is never physically threatening to the women; his threat is all psychological. Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are equally outstanding. Both actresses convincingly demonstrate how Paxton and Barnes change over the course of the movie. Especially pleasing is how Thatcher turns Barnes from a timid figure into somebody with the confidence to meet Reed head-on.

What happens in Heretic isn’t entirely plausible, especially in the back half. And yet, it doesn’t remotely matter because everything fits together to create a uniquely disturbing work of horror that will keep you rattled long after it’s over.

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