From the moment I saw the trailer for Heretic I was immediately interested. Hugh Grant in an offbeat role in a twisted faith-based horror? Sign me all the way up. Then I learned A24 was behind it and it was coming to TIFF and my excitement grew even more, and I'm happy to report this was a perfect palate cleanser from all the intense dramas in the festival.
Heretic follows a pair of young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, who are making house visits in attempt to convert interested people into their church. Their last stop of the day as a storm starts to weather, is an older British man (Hugh Grant) who invites them in claiming his wife is inside baking a pie. When the vibes get iffy and the girls want to leave, they are plunged into a test of faith in order to escape. I won't say anything more about the plot, as its fun twists and turns are a large part of what makes it such a fun watch, and trust me this is a very fun time.
I am far from the most religious person, I have no problem with people finding comfort in faith but putting all my eggs in one basket of belief isn't something that works for me. When religion is a personal thing I see no qualm, but the way some try to push their beliefs on others is a large part of why I have a complicated relationship with organized religion. All this to say, I had a ton of fun with how Scott Beck and Bryan Woods dissected faith and belief here. This is without question a horror movie, but as the filmmakers said in the q&a afterwards, the genre acts as a trojan horse to open discussion on these touchy subjects. Most of the runtime is dedicated to meticulously clever dialogue dissecting the history of the three major religions, their influences, the way we interact with them, all serving the tests set forth by Grant's character.
Given the dialogue heavy nature of this one, the performances needed to be great in order to carry the relatively long runtime. Luckily, we are treated to a trio of really great actors each putting in different strong work. Grant is obviously the big name and he delivers some of his best work in recent memory. His character has a charm to him despite his creepiness, but it's the way he balances between the hilarious satirical tone and the more sinister tone is what makes this role work so well. You laugh along with him only to find yourself still very much on edge and that's thanks to Grant's strength as a performer as well as the great tone Beck and Woods create. I was also very pleasantly surprised by just how great East and Thatcher were. I really enjoyed Thatcher in The Boogeyman and she is even better here, showing an underlying skepticism to Grant's character from the get-go that constantly builds. She shows a great sense of strength through her fear that I really enjoyed. East is also amazing, her character comes across as very innocent but we see her grow to question more and more about the situation as it progresses and ultimately winds up matching Grant's performance in the later act. This is a tough script but these three do wonders in bringing the dialogue to life.
Aside from the script and performances, the biggest star of the show in my eyes is the set design. The layout of the house truly feels like a game of mouse trap that I only wish we could have explored even more, but I was wowed even more by the attention to detail in creating a set that at times feels like a dark room in a church while also being filled with tons of references to religions of the past and present. It's a truly clever movie, and seeing the same amount of care in the crafts as the script was something I really appreciated. It may be a tad too long for what it is, and I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the ending, but I had a blast with this. 4/5
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