The 2024 horror film Heretic is cerebral, voluble and, dare I say it, a little boring. I kind of dozed off in the middle of it and had to rewatch it to catch what important things I’d missed. Somewhat amazingly Rotten Tomatoes dot com, gave this a staggering 91 percent. Perhaps there is another film titled Heretic and I should have watched that.
the Story
Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes are on their mission to spread the word of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, AKA; Mormons. They meet their last appointment of the day; Mr Reed. He invites the two scrubbed faces into his home. It is raining heavily and snow is starting to mix in.
Like the wicked witch in Hansel and Gretel, Reed, in Heretic, is more a wolf in grandma’s clothing here and the two young ladies are starting a pretty harrowing journey. One of good and evil.
And eventually, death.
The Cast
Hugh Grant is Mr Reed.
Sophie Thatcher is Sister Barnes.
Chloe East is Sister Paxton.
Topher Grace is Elder Kennedy.
Elle Young is Prophet.
behind the camera
Heretic is written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. The film, despite being overly talkative (which I suppose it needs to be) moves on toward an almost foregone ending. The script does, however, indulge the many coffee table discussions about religion that have taken place since the beginning of time.
DP Chung-hoon Chung does a splendid job with the many challenging lighting scenarios. Justin Li edits with skill and puts everything together well. VFX is spot on and the makeup, special and otherwise, is also impressive.
issues
I have a number of issues with Heretic. The film works very well, in many ways. It segways into mystery at one point and things become a bit more interesting but the pacing lags. Mainly because of the dime store theology discussed in the film.
Essentially, everyone just talks too much. It feels like the religious discussion takes hours.
This discussion does help us understand everyone in Heretic. Sadly, however, any real surprises in the film are sabotaged by the film’s trailers. We know going in that Hugh Grant’s character is not a “nice guy.”
It kind of lets the air out chaps.
Lastly, the final “cat out of the bag” moment takes far too long to be completely satisfying. At almost two hours, Heretic could have used some more “cutting room floor” editing.
Things that work
Kudos to Topher Grace as Elder Kennedy. I actually had no idea it was Grace in the role until credits rolled. He disappeared into that character as effortlessly as the invisible man. Well done mate.
Grant manages to hit all the right notes as he rings the scales while playing a part within a part.
My new favorite is Sophie East. She manages to make that transition from young Mormon to Agatha Christie’s Jane Marple seem pretty believable. (Or Jessica Fletcher if you prefer.) Both young women knocked their respective parts out of the metaphorical park.
All I’m saying is: The performances were spot on, but Heretic the film left me feeling cold. (And bored in places.)
The Verdict
Heretic earns no where near the lofty scores from others. I have given the film a solid 4 out of 5 stars. It almost lost one half of a star because of its rather sophomoric approach to religion in general. Heretic is streaming on Max right now.
the trailer
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