Heretic (film)

This article is about the 2024 film. For other similarly-named films, see Heretic (disambiguation) § Film and theatre.

Heretic
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Scott Beck Bryan Woods
Written by	Scott Beck Bryan Woods
Produced by	Stacey Sher Scott Beck Bryan Woods Julia Glausi Jeanette Volturno
Starring	Hugh Grant Sophie Thatcher Chloe East
Cinematography	Chung Chung-hoon
Edited by	Justin Li
Music by	Chris Bacon
Production companies	A24 Beck/Woods Shiny Penny
Distributed by	A24
Release dates	September 8, 2024 (2024-09-08) (TIFF) November 8, 2024 (2024-11-08)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2.6 million

Heretic is a 2024 American horror thriller film written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. It stars Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, and Chloe East, and follows two Mormon missionaries who attempt to convert a reclusive Englishman, only to realise he is more dangerous then he seems.

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2024, and was released in the UK and Ireland on November 1, 2024, and in the United States by A24 on November 8, 2024.

Plot

Two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Barnes and Paxton, arrive at the home of a reclusive Englishman, Mr. Reed. They enter after being told Reed's wife is preparing a blueberry pie, and they begin to discuss religion, with Reed gradually making several uncomfortable comments about the Mormon faith and the nature of belief. After Reed steps out of the room, Barnes notices that the smell of blueberry pie is from a candle, and the pair realise the front door is locked and they have no phone signal.

Following Reed, they enter his study, where he proceeds to give a threatening lecture on the nature of beliefs, stating that all religions are adaptations of one another, and claims to have found the one true religion. He gives the girls a choice of two doors to go through in order to exit the house, one if they still believe in God, and one if they do not. Barnes rebels, refuting several of his claims, before they both enter the "Belief" door.

In a basement dungeon, Reed declares he will show them a miracle, before a decrepit woman called 'The Prophet' appears. She eats a poisoned pie and dies, with Reed claiming that the pair will witness her be resurrected. A Mormon elder arrives looking for the girls, but leaves after discovering nothing. The Prophet suddenly springs back to life, and delivers a description of the afterlife. Reed appears in the basement, and asks the girls to describe what just happened. Barnes rejects The Prophet's description, noting its similarity to textbook hallucinations from near-death experiences. Reed suddenly slashes her throat, claiming she will also come back after death.

When Barnes bleeds out, Reed takes a contraceptive implant from her arm, claiming it is proof that she is an artificial person, and her failure to resurrect proves she was not real and the world is a simulation. Paxton, however, realises that the situation had been orchestrated by Reed: Whilst the girls had been distracted by the Elder's arrival, a second woman appeared and hid The Prophet's corpse, before taking her place and delivering the afterlife description as scripted by Reed, adding an unplanned comment: "It's not real". Reed's killing of Barnes and attempt to convince Paxton of a simulated reality was improvisation to cover the plan going awry. Paxton discovers an underground chute through which the Prophet's corpse was hidden, and continues down with Reed promising it will show her the one "true religion".

Following the path, Paxton enters a room with numerous caged women, where she deduces Reed's conclusion: that a desire to control others is the root of all religions. She stabs Reed in the neck with a dagger she had been hiding and attempts to flee, but is stabbed in the gut by Reed. As the pair bleed out, she begins to pray, claiming to a vexed Reed that it is done to show kindness to others, rather than to produce material results. As Reed prepares to finish her off, Barnes suddenly kills him with a plank of wood, before succumbing to her wounds. Paxton finds her way outside and runs to freedom, before seeing a butterfly land on her hand as she described she herself would do to loved ones after she dies. Whether the butterfly is real or not is left ambiguous.

Cast

• Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed
• Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes
• Chloe East as Sister Paxton
• Topher Grace as Elder Kennedy
• Elle Young as Prophet

Production

In June 2023, it was reported that Scott Beck and Bryan Woods wrote and would direct the A24 film, Heretic. Hugh Grant and Chloe East were cast in lead roles.

The production was granted an interim agreement allowing filming during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Principal photography took place in Vancouver over 30 days from October 3 to November 16, 2023.

Release

Heretic premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2024. The film was originally scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on November 15, 2024, before it was moved up from its original release date of November 15 to November 8. It was released in the United Kingdom a week earlier, for Halloween, on October 31.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 108 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Hugh Grant has infectious fun playing against type in Heretic, a religious horror that preaches the gospel of cerebral chills over cheap shocks." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

External links

• Official website
• Heretic at IMDb