Heretic

 

Writers / directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods take matters of belief and religiosity and set them ablaze in their chilling horror thriller Heretic.

In the film, two young female Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) ride their bikes up to a deceptively charming house in response to an internet inquiry for more information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (a real giveaway that something is amiss, IYAM).

The door is answered by a cheery Hugh Grant, who says he did indeed ask for the visit and invited the missionaries in for a chat. They ask if a woman is present in the home, as per the church's practice, and Grant's Mr. Reed says his wife is in the kitchen baking a blueberry pie. 

The missionaries, Sisters Paxton and Barnes (East and Thatcher, respectively), slip easily into their witness but are quickly challenged by Reed about Mormon beliefs, including the church's former practice of polygamy. 

The missionaries acquit themselves admirably at first, but the visit becomes ominous as Reed's inquiries about faith systems become more pointedly hostile and his wife's mysterious absence becomes more concerning.

The film's narrative -- which is more psychological thriller than full-blown horror -- includes a central passage about religious institutions' claims of authenticity. Grant, in sparkling form in a unique character mode, picks at the missionaries' composure and slowly reveals their growing dread of him is warranted. 

The film then moves into the familiar territory of entrapment but adds the twist that gives the film its title, pulling in the picture's bloody aspects. 

Beck and Woods, who co-wrote and produced John Krasinski's 2018 alien invasion hit A Quite Place, know that the most compelling and enduring fright is that which does not just repulse but unmoors the viewers' sense of reality and gets the audience to enter into spaces they know they shouldn't but can't resist -- including the questioning of one's long-held beliefs.