Ever heard of “faith movies”? Well, “Heretic” is the opposite. In this thorny, impossible-to-predict thriller, co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (best known as the writers of “A Quiet Place”) ask audiences to embrace Hugh Grant as a demented religious scholar so extreme that he sets up two Mormon missionaries in his home and torments them into rejecting their faith in Joseph Smith and all his teachings.
The lesson this sicko has planned is to Bible study what “Saw” is to shopping class. But this is Hugh Grant we’re talking about. When his character, Mr. Reed, dressed in an innocuous sweater and wearing glasses, answers the door, the young couple have no reason to question his motives, or his generous offer of freshly baked blueberry pie.
These two proselytizers came to sell salvation. Beck and Woods are selling something else, namely suspense, counting on Grant’s radically counterproductive turn to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. And it does. The likeable English actor has diversified his talents recently, playing shady characters in Guy Ritchie films and even a comic villain in “Paddington 2,” but he’s never been as dark as “Heretic” demands. It’s both the film’s selling point and a flaw in its own logic.
Beck and Woods’s script, which is talky and thought-provoking but more superficial than it first appears, has more food for thought than most horror films. But why is “Heretic” a horror film? The co-directors’ ideas would surely have worked better in a college tête-à-tête — a fiery exchange between two moralizing young students and their skeptical, smug professor, perhaps — but they begin to seem not only nihilistic but borderline irresponsible once Mr. Reed’s intentions become clear.
“Heretic” opens with Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) sitting on a park bench, discussing Magnum condoms. Paxton has heard that they’re the same size as regular condoms. It’s an odd conversation between two abstinent members of the Church of Latter-day Saints, and it feels suspiciously like the kind of gimmick meant to grab readers’ attention on the first page of a speculative storyline (when the audience has already bought a ticket and doesn’t need any convincing to continue).
Neither Sister Paxton nor Sister Barnes have the personal experience to say whether their Magnum theory is true, but they are skeptical enough to question the sales pitch. That’s what Mr. Reed wants them to do, too. He’s given Mormon missionaries his contact information. He’s invited them to his home. And now that they’re here—a captive audience for his largely one-sided theological debate—he wants his guests to recognize that they’re nothing more than glorified salespeople, spreading the message of a false religion.
For most of “Heretic,” Mr. Reed doesn’t really address the sisters. What interest could he possibly have in converting them to his way of thinking? Instead, he addresses the audience, who are probably more likely to agree with him than a couple of door-to-door evangelists indoctrinated in their parents’ faith. (In Sister Barnes’ case, it’s a bit more complicated, since she had a brush with death when she was younger, which opens up one of the film’s least developed dead ends.) Meanwhile, Beck and Woods keep us on the edge of our seats by dragging out scenes and delaying the fate that awaits these two missionaries.
Once Mr. Reed lures the girls into his inner sanctum, he presents them with a test. The room has two “exit” doors, on which he scrawles the words “BELIEF” and “DISBELF” in chalk. Choose wisely and they’re free to go… or so he says. But can they trust him? His house is specially designed for this purpose, with doors and windows that lock and metal ceilings and walls that block cell phone signals.
Mr. Reed seems to have thought of everything. In this area at least, he is free to play God — or a pedagogue, as he seems to prefer, preaching what he calls the “one true religion.” Mr. Reed uses references to popular culture to make his case, suggesting that all religions are “iterations” of each other, in the same way that the Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe” inspired Radiohead’s “Creep,” which in turn probably influenced Lana Del Rey’s “Get Free.” But what does that prove, since the differences between religions are often more revealing than their similarities?
“Religion is held to be true by ordinary people, false by wise men, and useful by rulers,” Seneca said, summing up much of the discussion (and dissection) Mr. Reed has in store for us. He’s the smartest person in the room, and yet something doesn’t quite add up in the way he tries to demonstrate how such systems are used to manipulate and control the masses, forcing the filmmakers to resort to lame horror-movie gimmicks—and a convoluted set piece that Mr. Reed calls his “miracle”—to keep us hooked.
Fortunately, the two missionaries aren’t as inexperienced as they seem. Sister Paxton is polite and eager to please, but eventually sees through Mr. Reed’s argument and asserts herself appropriately. Like a young Winona Ryder, Sister Barnes has a tough side and secrets of her own. But the most unpredictable character is Grant, because nothing he’s done before really prepares us for what he’s capable of here. It’s scary, sure, but it doesn’t necessarily add up. These two aren’t Mr. Reed’s first victims, but where does he find them? (A barely recognizable Topher Grace makes a brief appearance as the elder Kennedy, who would surely understand if the missionaries assigned to Reed’s house kept disappearing.)
In fact, fear and religion aren’t so different. They’re both based on our beliefs… and you have to be a little convinced that the stuttering character in “Four Weddings and a Funeral” is just as twisted. (There will be more funerals than weddings this time.) Go for it, and “Heretic” can be an entertaining adventure. It may not change your mind about religion, but you’ll never think about blueberry pie the same way again.
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