One of the most refreshing and exciting franchises of the past decade emerged in 2018 A quiet place. With John Krasinski starring and directing the project, he earned the lion’s share of credit for its effectiveness, despite the script being something he rewrote after it was initially written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. To some extent, it felt a bit like courage stolen and that Beck and Woods’ contributions were completely overlooked. With their next directorial efforts, 2019’s Chase and 2023 65it seemed that perhaps Krasinski was the one who provided the right alchemy in the end A quiet place a success and deservedly deserved praise, given the shortcomings of those films. Of HereticBeck and Woods become much more intimate and much more personal in a tense adventure about questioning your faith that has as much to do with organized religion as it apparently does with pandering to the studio system.
Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and go to the home of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), who claims he is interested in learning more. find out about their church. As the conversation begins jovially, Mr. Reed begins to press the missionaries on their own beliefs and those of their church, leading to much more extreme challenges to their faith. The sisters, along with the public, wonder whether admitting holes in these belief systems due to a betrayal of their faith will allow them to return safely to the church, or whether doubling down on their beliefs will lead to tragedy to lead.
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An icon in the field of romantic comedies, Heretic gives Grant the chance to fully lean into despicable villainy, resulting in a character almost as nefarious as his villain in Paddington2. Much of the film revolves solely around talking characters, with Grant deftly delivering complex monologues detailing the overlaps in the mythology of a dozen religions, while also outlining how Lana Del Rey’s ‘Get Free’ contrasts Radiohead’s ‘Creep’, that The Hollies’ “The Air I Breathe.” It’s a huge challenge to make a villain so intimidating based solely on verbal manipulation, with the audience themselves certainly drawn to Mr. Reed’s playful mania. If nothing else, we hope Grant’s performance in Heretic results in being inundated with more treacherous roles in the future.
Thatcher already has a built-in following thanks to her work Yellowjackets and last year’s The Boogey Manbut East manages to steal a few scenes from her costar and even rivals Grant’s screen presence. While Thatcher can lean on the more hardened personality we’ve seen in her other projects, Sister Paxton’s naivete is alarming and baffling to the audience, which is excused by her faith. This makes her quick wits and resourcefulness feel even more surprising to the viewer, which also makes her competence more rewarding when pushed by Mr. Reed.
The film’s first act is some of the most compelling material in any horror film of the year, as something as simple as three talking characters is milked for every ounce of suspense. Whether it’s a flicker of light, the lighting of a candle, an off-screen conversation, or a question that comes across as an interrogation, the audience will scream at the protagonists to escape, but then our screams become not heard (after all, we yell at fictional characters in a movie). If the last two acts had been nearly as exciting as those first 30 minutes, Heretic can be considered one of the most effective horror stories of the year. Unfortunately, nothing in the back half of the film lives up to that introduction.
Mr. Reed makes it clear in the first act that at one point he was searching for the “one true religion,” a search that many people embark on. As the film unfolds, Mr. Reed makes a number of valid complaints about the contrarian nature of most religions and the many misconceptions they perpetuate, as well as the countless tragedies and traumas they have caused throughout history. Some of these ideas will sound valid to even the most devout believer, but the further we get into the film, the more Mr. Reed sounds like a mix between Robert Langdon from Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and someone you get stuck with at a party who just finished an Introduction to Religion course. The film feels less like a story about these characters and more like the filmmakers putting their full emphasis on railing against organized religion, showering both the characters and the audience with “revelations” that aren’t entirely new.
The entire film does not serve as an attack on organized religions as it also shows how Sisters Barnes and Paxton persevere because of their faith, leaving the audience to speculate whether their faith gives them power or if they are merely misguided. Horror fans familiar with the New French Extremity movement will see it well Heretic as a reminder Martyrsboth thematically and in terms of narrative premise, but although that film made his thoughts on religion very clear, HereticThe message of the film becomes a bit muddled and makes the whole experience feel like a fruitless endeavor.
One of the key components of religion that Mr. Reed clings to is the idea of control and the way organizations weaponize that facet of the church to influence the actions of all members. The disappointments of Beck and Woods’ previous film 65mixed with them A quiet place script that transitions into something completely new, that means Heretic can also be seen as a reflection of their own frustrations when it comes to losing control of something they are passionate about. After that first story of A quiet place was transformed into a major box-office sensation and their partnership with Sony in 65 scored only 36% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes, Heretic feels deeply personal, not only in its commentary on faith, but also in the idea of losing control over something that came from a place of empowerment and excitement. If Heretic is a better reflection of the filmmakers’ talents, we hope this just scratches the surface of what they are capable of and that we get much more intimate terror from them than from bombastic spectacles.
If nothing else, Heretic completely succeeds in giving audiences something they’ve never seen before from filmmakers Beck and Woods or star Grant. For that reason alone, the film is absolutely worth experiencing, and while the questions it poses about organized religion and belief may not feel entirely new to just about anyone who has ever personally grappled with those ideas, it’s admirable that the film at least tries to say something. not at all. Whether the messy and overly complicated portrayal of those ideas will resonate with all audiences remains to be seen, but we’ll choose a thought-provoking genre film over a superficial slasher that emphasizes shock over sophistication any day of the week.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Heretic lands in theaters on November 8.