A24’s unconventional slow burner of horror film, “Heretic,” is set almost entirely inside a freaky snowed-in house. And while it does deploy horror staples such as jump scares and gore, it does so judiciously, and relatively late in the thicket of its mind game.
The film prefers to focus instead on weighty but entertaining theological discussions between two plucky Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East) and the deep thinking — or so he believes — pie peddler Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), an educated guy with warped intentions.
The more worldly Sister Barnes (Thatcher) and the eager-beaver Sister Paxton (East) get caught in a trap of his devising and become unwitting mice to Reed’s toying cat once they enter his domain on a false pretense that he wants to be enlightened about Mormonism.
Horror diehards will likely walk away feeling hoodwinked by a freaky trailer that promises something more extreme than what gets delivered. But those seeking restraint and something more clever than the usual carnage will find this talky (in a good way) creeper offers more to chew on than the genre norm.
“Heretic” does give you the case of the minor willies, but it’s more preoccupied about the pecking order and back history of world religions and the control they exert on their disciples. Big frights take a backseat.
Directors/screenwriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woods — who together wrote “A Quiet Place” and have made a few horror films — keep your mind engaged throughout, but do, on occasion, slip into the overly didactic. They just can’t help themselves.
Yet nothing about “Heretic” is boring or stilted, which is a feat given 90 percent of the film takes place inside Mr. Reed’s sparsely decorated home where various doors take you to ever more unsettling destinations.
“Heretic” avoids being sterile or stagy because the extra-chewy dialogue is basted and battered in pop-culture symbolism, bouncing from Monopoly to fast-food restaurants to Radiohead and so on in order to make salient, entertaining religious points.
Equally responsible for making “Heretic” work are its three actors. Thatcher and East, both of whom used to be associated with the Mormon Church, avoid stereotyping either their characters or their religion. Instead they emerge as smart and resourceful, one more resourceful than the other.
But as good as they are, it is Grant who is the beacon of dark light here from the instant he opens that front door and flashes his boyish smile that just seems slightly off. His character could easily have become one-note — a disturbed, secluded man — but the former king of the rom-com plays him in various keys, making him funny, weird, smart and threatening, sometimes all at once. It’s a devilish high point in his career.
Contact Randy Myers at [email protected].
‘HERETIC’
3 stars out of 4
Rating: R (violence)
Starring: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East
Directors: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
Running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes
When & where: In theaters Nov. 8
