Heretic is the latest subversive horror flick from A24. But unlike this year’s earlier outing with Brandy, Heretic is actually a horror movie. This thriller from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods has just about everything you’d expect from an A24 horror flick, and some things you may not.

The greatest trick Heretic pulls is its long slow-paced scenes propelled solely by dialogue. Hugh Grant is an absolute madman in Heretic as the two women he meets slowly start to devise his sinister intentions. The entire film is tight and contained and is nothing short of a masterclass in exposition and chills.

Magic Underwear

Heretic begins innocuous enough with two young Morman women going door to door as part of their missions. They have doors slammed in their face, are ridiculed by young influencers, and contemplate the virtues of their religion. Their opening dialogue about condoms and dirty movies is the perfect table setting for the characters we are about to spend two hours with.

Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes is a little older and a little wiser than her naive counterpart, Chloe East as Sister Paxton. We get the sense that Paxton has been raised in the church, never knowing anything outside of her small Mormon bubble. Barnes is a bit more cynical but also more steadfast in her resolve. The result of a woman who chose this life. Not one who was born into it. Despite their hardships and ridicule, both sisters are determined to continue on their path of righteousness.

Control

When the sisters arrive at Mr. Reed’s house, a swarmy-looking Hugh Grant who asked for additional information about the church, it becomes immediately apparent to the audience that something is off about him. Reed asks strange and pointed questions. He points out inconsistencies in their doctrine and is direct about taboo subjects like death and polygamy.

It becomes clear early on to the girls that Mr Reed knows a lot about the Mormon faith. More so than even they do. But their politeness and the Mormon willingness to serve keeps them at the house longer than they should be. Reed does his best to soothe any fears but it becomes clear the longer they stay that everything has been orchestrated by Reed. Nothing is a coincidence and they are fully under his control.

Politeness

Politeness and our unwillingness to cause a scene is a frequent theme in these types of get me out of here horror movies. This year’s Speak No Evil has the villain stating “You let us” when asked why our heroes are being tortured and Funny Games is a satirical look at this very idea of politeness. How far does a stranger have to push you before you offend them?

Heretic uses this same theme but expands on it by offering a counter perspective. It’s not just these two young women’s naivety, there is a greater control at work. Reed has orchestrated everything down to the tee from the random timers in the home to the lack of a clear escape route. He makes the women think it’s their own fault but in reality, they never had a choice. The second they entered his home they entered his territory. And there is nothing they can do to escape.

Crisis of Faith

The second act begins with Grant sequestering the women into a small recreated church setting where he unloads his philosophy of faith on them. Reed makes crude comparisons between religions and board games while the women listen politely out of terror. It’s here where the film starts to reveal its big ideas about religion. How each religion is more or less the same, all iterating on one another. There is an illusion of choice but in reality, there is always something greater at work. If faith is based on one man’s interpretations, then that man can inevitably control the word to his liking.

Mr Reed presents the women with a choice but it’s clear to one of them that the choice is moot. He gives them two doors, one that represents belief and one disbelief. In reality, it doesn’t matter which door they choose, the outcome will be the same. They are already under his control and neither their faith or lack thereof can save them.

Miracles

Heretic does an amazing job of building tension leading up to the door choice. Hugh Grant plays a disturbed fanatic incredibly well here and the women slowly realizing how dire their situation is becoming is fantastic cinema. It’s when they enter the door and the women begin to unravel Reed’s plan that the movie starts to slip a bit. The terrors of the unknown are always worse than reality and Heretic suffers from this.

Where Heretic doesn’t suffer though is its ability to keep everything grounded. The entire film takes place in ostensibly one location, Reed’s house. The set designs of his living room, church, and basement all invoke a level of fear and discomfort that seeps through the screen. This is a horror movie about faith, and an A24 one at that, and there is an expectation that this film could at any point go off the rails. But Heretic never does. It never delves into the supernatural, never posits anything that can’t be explained, and leaves enough breadcrumbs for the audience to pick up on the magic trick Reed is trying to pull.

Magic Tricks

Heretic is saying a lot about faith, doubt, and control. The film is littered with these themes and they all come together spectacularly in the end. It’s refreshing to see a movie start and end in a grounded place. More or less. Some wacky antics delve into the unbelievable towards the end, but nothing truly unexplainable.

Longlegs, another blockbuster horror movie this year, ends with a strange and unsatisfying twist. It’s revealed at the end that every mystery the film gives has no real explanation. It comes down to more or less “It was the devil all along.” Heretic wisely abandons the desire to pull any supernatural stunts and instead fully realizes its themes. There is no supernatural, no divine intervention. Only powerful men who desire full control. Everything is orchestrated according to their plan and they use faith as a catalyst for their control. Heretic is a fantastic film and, aside from The Substance, maybe the best horror flick released this year.