HERETIC

TIFF 24 REVIEW BY: KURT MORRISON

DATE: SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

RATING: 5 out of 5

The writing and directing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have been on a roll within Hollywood recently, after 2018’s A Quiet Place launched them into box office stardom, last year’s 65 and the Stephen King adaptation of The Boogeyman both hit theatres with relatively good response.

With a creature feature of Quiet Place magnitude under their belt, a supernatural thriller like Boogeyman quietly creeping out audiences and a new cult classic haunted house film like Haunt checking off that box, the world of horror is their sandbox and they are doing a damn good job exploring it.

Call me blasphemous, but religious horror is my absolute favourite subgenre in all of film. There is something about taking religious ideologies and the topic of theology and exploring its darkest and deepest corners that absolutely thrills me as a viewer. Perhaps this is why I consider 1973’s The Exorcist a perfect film.

Heretic doesn’t focus solely on Catholicism or Christianity, nor does it even draw its complete attention to the Mormon church, as the trailer would have you believe. Instead it is a well crafted, charming yet sinister dissection of belief and religion as a whole that slices through the meat of many-a-text with Hannibal Lecter like precision.

At the heart of its story are Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes, played by Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher, two young Mormons on a mission to go door to door and work the lord’s word and bring new converts to the Mormon church. We see early on that they aren’t liked at all within the community, being bullied by fellow young women their age whilst even peacefully walking down the street. You sympathize with the girls as neither seem mean spirited or harmful, which is why almost immediately you root for them when they meet Hugh Grant’s Mr. Reed, who welcomes them into his house to speak about the church’s teachings and see if there is a possibility of a living room baptism.

And that is where I leave you in the dark ladies and gents because the less you know about Heretic, the more of a jaw dropping thrill ride it will be.

It's script and plot are so perfectly crafted and executed by Beck and Woods, not just because of the unease and anxiety it slowly develops during the film’s second and third act but because it uncovers things your brain would never know of, theological and psychological.

This was truly a once in a lifetime TIFF experience because I was glued to the screen from the first frame to the last.

Heretic is an instant horror classic and I cannot wait for audiences to experience it on November 15th. It forces the viewer to question beliefs and doctrines that have been around for millennia, while viscerally attacking both brain and brawn with a level of silver tongued articulation that spews from Hugh Grant with cunning accuracy that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from him. Be ready to question everything, film lovers. You are in for a treat.