Heretic is the new movie from directorial team Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, whose previous efforts include the teen slasher Haunt and the widely-panned Adam Driver dinosaur adventure 65. They also wrote the script to John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place. Unlike those films, Heretic is made and distributed in partnership with A24, something guessable from a two-second glance at the poster or any given five-second chunk of the trailer.

Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are two young Mormon missionaries working through a list of addresses of people who’ve shown interest in the church, hoping for a conversion. Last on the list for the day is a small semi-remote cottage belonging to a Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), who invites them in out of the rain. On inquiring whether there is a woman in the house – a safety requirement of the church – they’re assured that Mr. Reed’s wife is in the kitchen. In we go.

Reed is charming and an excellent host, who we learn has a remarkable knowledge of comparative religion and really, really loves a chat. Of course, he also seems a little shifty, and as you might expect it turns out his intentions appear to extend beyond learning more about the Church of Latter Day Saints.

Barnes and Paxton’s rising concern with their situation is well captured, and up to a point you feel their predicament quite genuinely. Unfortunately, having skilfully set up this premise and introduced us to its engaging leads, Beck and Woods don’t really seem to know where they want to take us. Those who don’t often partake in the horror genre (possibly lured in by the late career stunt casting of Grant) may find some scares and enjoyment in what follows, but for those more familiar, there is a disappointing sense of going through the motions in the film’s back half. At times aspects of the plot also seem too closely to echo other recent films, blunting their impact in the process. At one stage Sister Paxton accuses Reed of having lost control and needing to improvise, and you can’t help but feel the same could be said of the filmmakers.

Still, the film has its strengths. Thatcher and East’s performances are excellent. Grant too is compelling, and while his patter begins to wear as the movie goes on, that mostly assists the film’s narrative. The cinematography from frequent Park Chan-wook collaborator Chung Chung-hoon is clever and effective, introducing us to new features and rooms of the cottage with precision and flair. You also get to see Grant mount an impression of a Star Wars character so confounding that you’re not sure he’s ever seen the source material. It’s just disappointing that Beck and Woods didn’t have more of a vision for how to escalate events in a way that is both scary and pays off its intellectual underpinning in an interesting way.

 

Heretic opens tomorrow in cinemas.