Challenging Faith: A Review of Heretic

03/12/2024

Edie Bell-Brown (she/her) explores how Hugh Grant successfully swaps his rom-com charm for chilling villainy in Heretic

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By Edie Bell-Brown

Heretic (2024) is an A24 psychological thriller/horror directed and written by the powerful duo behind horror hit A Quiet Place (2018), Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. The film follows two young missionaries, Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher). The two girls knock on Mr Reed's (Hugh Grant) door in hopes of converting him to the Mormon faith and are greeted by a slightly awkward, but seemingly friendly old man. Mr Reed ushers them in with the welcoming promise of his wife’s presence and a freshly baked blueberry pie. Yet, from the minute they step through the door the atmosphere shifts and it becomes apparent that there is no wife nor blueberry pie. The girls are locked inside, with seemingly no means of escape. The pair become trapped in Mr. Reed’s dangerous game of cat and mouse, where each choice they make symbolises a greater existential decision the sisters make in their faith.

Many of us associate Hugh Grant with his younger persona as the endearing, floppy-haired king of British rom-coms, charming his way through the ‘90s and 2000s in classics such as Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones (2001) and Love Actually (2003). Yet, over the last decade, we have witnessed his acting renaissance and he has truly proven himself to be a character actor. Grant has stepped out of his signature brand as the frazzled yet lovable posh boy, and assumed weirder and darker roles. He has successfully played the villain in his more recent projects, such as his performance as Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2 (2017) and Forge in Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Theives (2023). However, Grant’s portrayal of creepy and cunning Mr. Reed exceeds all the PG boundaries of his previous villainous roles, as he flips his usual trademark charm into sadistic atheism. Whilst Mr. Reed still feels uncannily like Grant, he has bent himself out of shape to give us a disturbingly sinister and refreshingly new character to add to his filmography.

Despite Grant’s scene-stealing and arguably career-best portrayal as Mr Reed, both Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East deliver strong supporting performances. East plays a ‘born and bred’ devoted Sister Paxton who is sickeningly sweet, yet turns out to be a lot stronger than she may look. Contrastingly Thatcher plays Sister Barnes who seems to be a little more wise and sceptical. Despite being equally devoted, her relationship with her faith appears to be more complex due to her past trauma which the film hints at.

The first hour was slowly paced and heavily reliant on the dialogue between Mr Reed and the two Sisters. However, I found that Mr Reed’s verbose character was key to adding depth to the plot, as the film doesn’t rely on blood and gore in a typical horror fashion to evoke fear. Mr Reed’s chilling presence and thought-provoking monologues are enough to leave both the audience and the Sisters feeling uneasy. Whilst the plotline of Heretic may seem like a familiar cliche– a creepy old man and two young, naive girls– as the film progresses and the true horror begins, the plot unpredictably takes turns down unexpected and darker routes which keeps the audience guessing all the way through. As well as the contrasting perspectives on religion from both Mr Reed and the Sisters which add a deeper level to the film, Heretic mirrors the political world we live in today, making the film feel scarily socially relevant.

The psychological torture Mr Reed inflicts on the girls is achieved through his theological lectures and history lessons (as well as uncomfortable questions about polygamy). Mr Reed examines the inherent imperfections of religion, particularly the foundations of Mormonism, which according to him are made up of iterations of ancient beliefs and diluted retellings of original stories. He uses analogies of board games and music, including Radiohead and Lana Del Rey references, to support his critique of religion. By undermining Sister Paxton and Barnes’s belief system, which they revolve their livelihood around, and attempting to prove their religion is certainly not worthy of worship, Mr Reed reveals to them his idea of what the ‘one true religion’ is (you’ll have to watch the film yourself to find out his answer). Mr Reed cleverly explores the dynamics between faith, freedom and control by putting Sister Paxton and Barnes through an emotionally twisted test of their religious loyalty. However, the girls prove to be stronger than they initially seem as their unwavering faith puts up a strong fight against Mr Reed’s scheming mind games.

The set design of Mr Reed’s unsettling house is key in building visual tension. Primarily, his house can be seen to mirror the image of Dante’s Inferno hanging on his office wall. As we move deeper into the house we experience the different levels of physical and psychological ‘hell’ that Reed puts Sister Paxton and Barnes through. Mr Reed fabricates a seemingly trustworthy character – a doting old married Mormon man – through the architecture of his living room. Items such as a knitting basket on an armchair, a thoroughly annotated Bible, and most importantly, a scented candle, contribute to this initial impression. He successfully manipulates what the girls see and hear, and despite it all being a facade, they choose to believe he is as innocent as he seems. This reinforces Mr Reed’s ideology that faith is led by illusion due to human’s inherently flawed ability to distinguish between the real and the fake, and what is true and what is false.

Heretic certainly was mind-opening and felt creatively refreshing due to its breaking of the genre stereotypes of religious horror. It did not rely on the supernatural elements of religion, such as Satan or the powers of God, to produce fear. Instead, it uses intelligence, tension and the more unusual elements of religion to produce an atmosphere that is truly terrifying. To conclude this review, whilst Heretic’s ending may be seen as unsatisfactory to some viewers, I see it as bittersweet yet brilliant. Despite all the darkness, there is a sense of hope as the ending leaves the audience to take their own personal leap of faith in what they choose to believe happens after the credits begin to roll.