Heretic

Hugh Grant has done a subtle and stellar job of reinventing himself over the past ten years. After decades of playing the lovable cad in romantic comedies made on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, Grant began stretching himself, moving away from charming, stammering leading man and into more beguiling supporting roles. The online film community will point to Grant’s role as actor Phoenix Buchanan, the egotistical villain of 2018’s beloved Paddington 2, as a turning point. And indeed, it was, although by then, Grant had already displayed some flexibility in such varied works as Cloud Atlas, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Florence Foster Jenkins.

Branching out has worked to Grant’s advantage. He’s picked up more credits in the past few years than he did in the fifteen prior. These have included high-profile mainstream films. An Oompa Loompa in last Christmas’ hit Wonka. Another villain in the surprisingly enjoyable Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Not one but two Guy Ritchie flicks.

Grant stretches himself even more, virtually carrying a really good A24 horror movie on his able back in Heretic. Grant is Mr. Reed, a man who has requested more information from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That request brings Sisters Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Paxton (Chloe East), pair of affable young Mormon missionaries to his door one wintry afternoon.

Mr. Reed seems to make for a polite and receptive audience, while bending the rules that require a woman present for the Mormons to proceed with their routine pitch. His wife’s just in the kitchen, he claims. Baking a blueberry pie, you see. Sister Barnes and Paxton may be wholesome, sweet, and trusting, but they begin to suspect something amiss when they spot a lit blueberry pie candle from which the pleasant baking smells seem to be emanating.

While they offer an excuse and try to make a quick escape, this is no short film. The two teens are in for a taxing and harrowing ordeal, in which Mr. Reed, utilizing everything from Monopoly variations to the legal action that The Hollies took against Radiohead for the similarities between “Creep” and “The Air I Breathe”, to pose questions about their religion and its rigid beliefs.

With a few exceptions, the best horror films are based in realistic situations. Here, A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods craft an utterly believable scenario and then explore how far they can go to build tension and unsettle you. The most preposterous thing to transpire is that somehow, the duo that gave us 2023’s ridiculous trashy dinosaur B-movie 65, are actually capable visual storytellers with a keen eye for utilizing a fixed location and escalating suspense.

Suggesting they were previously possessed or impersonated by mindless AI on their last movie, Beck and Woods do a terrific job here of planting seeds, connecting dots, and consistently raising stakes. In a genre that loves to rely on stabby boogeymen and the supernatural, it’s both wild and refreshingly original to have a villain tackle subjects of theology and faith with a historical perspective and the vibe of a learned college professor a little too fond of his own voice.

Mr. Reed is a character you believe really exists and one in whose unusual home you dread spending time. Grant sells the antagonist extremely well, eliminating any trace of the actor’s long-held likability and inviting you to simply loathe. There are horror villains like Jigsaw, The Terrifier‘s Art, and Longlegs who are so broad in their mannerisms and extreme in their evil that fully immersing yourself in their terror requires major suspension of disbelief. In stark contrast, Reed is someone who is likely to remind you of a real person: a professor, a preacher, a strange uncle, a cult leader. He is charismatic, he is persuasive, and he is committed to making his two young visitors question everything they know.

Inevitably, Heretic starts to slightly loosen its long firm grip on you when it has to resolve its plot point and come up with a satisfying end to its agonizing narrative. Its final act reminded me a bit of Barbarian, a movie that swept us up in its compelling single-setting terror only to come down to earth with some divisive absurdity. Heretic does a better job of sticking the landing than that critically and publicly revered 2022 horror flick did. In the process, it’s drawing similarly through-the-roof levels of critical approval.

Hugh Grant has never been nominated for an Academy Award and it’s beyond a long shot to think that a film in the historically marginalized horror genre will do anything to change that. But it’s also tough to imagine there being five other male performances this year that command the screen so fully and serve their movie so well. As of right now, his turn here is one of just four 2024 lead performances I feel strong enough about to nominate in my critic group’s awards. But non-genre accolades aren’t in the cards any more than they were for Mia Goth in Pearl or Toni Collette for Hereditary. I’m beginning to think The Substance has hung around in the conversation long enough for Demi Moore to buck tradition, but I still wouldn’t bet on that.

Anyway, Heretic occupies this interesting gray area, somewhere between an arthouse undertaking and a mainstream attraction. A24 is as versed in this intersection as any modern studio and seems to be embracing it with strongly-performing genre works like Civil War, Talk to Me, Midsommar, and, of course, their hit Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once. Heretic opens wide this weekend at a not especially competitive time of year, and it should perform well, possibly well enough to prevent the Venom threequel from topping the box office for a third consecutive weekend. One can dream.

Heretic is not just one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, it also has the honor of being one of the most fun advance screenings I’ve ever attended. On the evening before Halloween, Alamo Drafthouse pulled out all the stops, pumping in blueberry pie smells to correspond with the candle action onscreen and then delivering completely unexpected slices of blueberry pies to our seats right on cue, which you’ll find out is more fitting than you initially expect. Just like the Beastie Boys in Kool Moe Dee’s critical assessment, I’ve got to give Alamo an “A” for sticking to themes. What an awesome experience at an awesome place. I wish it wasn’t an hour’s drive away in rush hour traffic, but Heretic is certainly a film worth the effort.