Heretic is the church scary movie A24 came up recently and its mental as many would say but has a few flaws, in fact I'm going to step down from an 8 to a 7 so people don't think I'm bias because I love psychological horror the most, it breaks from the typical possession/conjuring tales to an even more mental ground that test us where our faith begins and ends, while we’d doubtlessly question how far someone would go to prove their point, the idea that something like this can exist in real life is sick and terrifying, I truly hope no psycho watch this movie and make it happen in real life, just please don't. Going into this movie I expected another standard horror movie about the uprising psychological horror that has been the main horror sub genre from 2024, but what I got was a smart and well crafted story of two Mormon missionaries trapped in a house with someone who seems to know more about their religion than they do. The horror of the movie is built through conversations and debates that take their time before cheap scares, just the kind of horror that gets under my skin and into your brain.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28015403/
- Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Rottentomatoes Rating
It was very much like movies like Saw movies where I think was the beginning of this trend where the subject didn't need to be possess all it need was to be tested to figure and find out how far humans would go depending on the situation, where the horror is having no control in something, having to be trapped with somebody that controls everything that's the key aspect of this movie. Where we differ here is that instead of physical torture, we get raw psychological manipulation that wears down the characters faith, slowly taking their belief away and braking them down, in my opinion this is something fresh from the religious horror genre that has been created by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who previously gave us A Quiet Place, again something different from your typical Alien invasion action movies to mix it up with the fact that you cant make a sound because you are dead, even a new born, this is when the true horror is reborn from something as simple as a sound.
Woods and Beck have managed to build tension despite excluding every horror metaphors you can possibly think of, with the house it self becomes a character with its maze like structure and dimly lit rooms that contribute to the claustrophobia of the room, every corner is meant to generate a reaction. It’s even more disturbing because the blueberry pie smell from a candle, the chess like game Mr. Reed plays with his victims, very similar to the Saw movies and the way he has everything planned out, its terrifying and at the same time so satisfying when you are waiting for so long until all the planets align and the perfect moment becomes a reality, yes its sick to think about it but let it go, its just entertaining.
Movie starts during a snowstorm, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton arrive at Mr. Reed's house in an effort to share their Mormon faith with someone who has actually asked for information about their church. They arrive to Mr. Reed's place, played brilliantly by Hugh Grant who welcomes them with charm, at first the man is dream, charming as fuck to be just as sick, claiming his wife is in the kitchen baking a pie. The rule of the missionaries not to enter into homes without another woman present, they decide to come in from the storm and suddenly a fascinating discussion about religion, slowly turning into something more sinister.
Mr. Reed also lets it slip that he knows a lot more about religions than just Mormonism, its just like that old saying "The Devil knows the bible better than nobody else" and it has to be that way, best layer existed. He asks pointed questions and observes their beliefs to challenge them in the form of intellectual debate, which becomes increasingly uncomfortable at every step. The missionaries soon find themselves trapped in a house with a man who has been planning this moment with meticulous detail and no Mrs. Reed isn't baking any pie in the kitchen.
The house is a full blown maze with rooms and the entry to this room doors labeled Belief and Disbelief, forcing the missionaries to make choices leading towards escape or death, forcing them to break up, leaving behind what ever hope in their religion or humanity they have, that is what Mr. Reed is all about, breaking them down and teaching or learning how far humans would go. They dive further into the house, eventually discovering Mr Reed's true intentions and the horrible truth that they're not his first victims. Mr. Reed played by Hugh Grant, is one of Grant’s funniest and scariest performances at the same damn time, as he shucks his romantic comedy face for a part that’s both charming and terrifying. Whatever he does he manage to switch from friendly intellectual to menacing villain and every scene he is part of remains uncomfortable to watch, he will make you sick to your stomach that someone like him might exist, even doing a Jar Jar Binks impression for a moment, making him more unsettling.
Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes, and Chloe East as Sister Paxton, men you have to feel for them, there is no other description to it, why on Earth they had to land on Mr. Reed's trap, sadly it was meant to be and that is sometimes who unfair life is. Sister Paxton is pure belief and Sister Barnes is the more worldly of the two, questioning things while she believes, both become a combination of an interesting contrast while facing Mr. Reed's psychological games. There are aspects to this movie to make it a challenge from filming on tight spaces to keep it close to very few little characters like just a few in this case, Grant's intellectual superiority constantly challenged the missionaries belief as they try to keep their cool and find another exit, their performances come off natural and unforced, so that the intellectual debates are exciting rather than preachy, not the type of telling you exactly why you are wrong or right but rather staying on a gray area, that's when the devil plays.
The ending of Heretic is a whole different kind and provides enough wiggle room to interpret it however you like. Sister Barnes confronts Mr. Reed about his manipulation of women, almost trying to exposing his real intentions, meaning it has nothing to do with religion rather than over power women, she comes back to rescue Sister Paxton from the claws of Mr. Reed, who has been wounded her.
Its clear that since the moment we had had the two choice, belief or disbelief, the ending plays with the contrast between belief and reality. All along during the movie Mr. Reed says that control is the only true religion, but at the end he loses control of his meticulously planned game, either they can watch the butterflies scene as a confirmation of faith, or they can see the butterflies scene as a hallucination from trauma, and what they should decide to believe, he is so sick and fixed on control over women specifically that this makes him loose control of himself.
I’d say Heretic was a more than interesting enough game play that I ended up in a conspiracy of what was going on through Mr. Reed's mind the hole time, this is what makes the movie so interesting and engaging, taking in how it built tension through talk rather than the cheap scare jumps, the man is the true Pied Piper of Hamelin, just this time around allure them to a bigger trap. The psychological horror aspect itself was done really well and I love it, reason why I think I'm bias, because it made me question not only things that the characters believed but also things I think about control.
The movie just hammer down on religious horror using the intellectual and psychological aspects over supernatural and I just love it, putting it against my horror queen of 2024 "The First Omen". There's a lot of what you might call traditional horror indicators at play, but the core themes of faith, control and the power of belief never leave the building, just the way the house became the character that fuck with their minds the most, exactly as Mr. Reed was looking from above on his model and the Sisters had no where to go was amazing.
Heretic gets a 7/10 from me, just because I know some people wont go as further into the what if? of the movie like me, I simply love the damn thing. Yes, I know part of the movie feel a little too predictable, but it’s nice to see a horror movie that isn’t shy to get a little heavy and be serious about real things while still giving you something heavier with the combination of intellectual horror and psychological manipulation is just brilliant, considering how the horror genre is changing.
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