From the minds behind A Quiet Place and Hereditary comes a new look at horror. A24, in collaboration with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, presents a fresh perspective on horror with their latest thriller, Heretic, which explores themes of religion. Two young sister missionaries find themselves caught in a perilous game of cat and mouse after knocking on the door of the sinister Mr. Reed. As they become trapped in his home, they must rely on their faith to survive and escape.

As we enter into the world of Heretic we meet Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East). The two are young Mormon missionaries getting ready for their day of proselytizing. Since The Church of Latter Day Saints has gotten rid of tracting, the missionaries are now going off a list of investigators. One of those investigators is Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), a seemingly harmless man full of charm and disastrous lies. A rule for LDS Sister Missionaries is they are not allowed to be along with a man. There must be a woman present or a chaperone. Mr. Reed endearingly convinced the Sisters that his wife was home and baking a blueberry pie. So, the girls enter. Once inside, Mr. Reed’s true intentions slowly, somewhat obnoxiously unfold.

HUGH GRANT NEEDS MORE ROLES LIKE HERETIC’S MR. REED

Hugh Grant is widely known for his boyish charm and witty humor. While most people love him for Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, or even Bridget Jones’s Diary, my favorite role is Grant in The Gentleman. I love it when he breaks away from dashing leading man to more gritty characters. His charm still naturally saturates them making them disarming. That’s exactly what happens with Mr. Reed in Heretic. While he starts as a seemingly harmless older man, he quickly turns into a sinister lead. However, you’re not quite sure what he’s going to do. Is he just going to badger you with conversation and anecdotes about why religions are copied and pasted from each other? Will he murder you or turn you into a weird religious sex slave? Grant’s performance very much keeps the audience on its toes, never sure of what he will do next.

Thatcher (Yellowjackets) and East (Generation) do a great job playing the opposition in Heretic. The Sisters are strong and meek in their own ways, but most of all they’re smart. They continue to go toe to toe with Mr. Reed until the very end.

HERETIC’S PERFORMANCES CAN’T SAVE THIS PSEUDO-THRILLER

As an Ex-Mormon myself, I was incredibly excited to see Heretic. I’ve always found the idea of going on a mission and knocking on strangers’ doors to be an insane concept. You don’t know who anyone is and it seems like easy pickings for a serial killer. To my dismay, the film took a less interesting turn and became a pretentious explanation of why religion is garbage and no one should believe in any of it. While the film will be polarizing from those who think it’s genius, to those who are underwhelmed, I fall more into the ‘I agree with the sentiment, but the film is insufferable’ category.

Heretic watches like a college thesis of someone’s personal religious journey put on film. Mr. Reed goes from charmingly sinister to a pretentious academic with a condescending tone towards his “friends” and students. His speeches are filled with convoluted examples and experiences that are supposed to seem smart but come across as mental gymnastic “torture”. This style of rhetoric detracts from the thriller elements of the film, ultimately diminishing all the tension built to this point. While simultaneously not allowing it to rebuild. The almost 2-hour runtime is also of no help. Possibly, chopping off 20 mins would have helped make the film more poignant. Instead, it’s more unbearable mansplaining.

Heretic comes to theaters on November 15th. Make sure to check it out and let me know what you think.