‘Heretic’ Lacks Much Salvation Without Coming To Honest Revelations

A movie like Heretic is a good prime example of a movie that blows a wonderful premise and a great acting role by a veteran actor by resorting to cliched tropes of horror.

On a rainy day in an undisclosed community, two young Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), are traveling around town to do their work but can’t find many people willing to even listen for a minute. As the rain starts to come down harder, they approach the house of reclusive Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant).

The homeowner seems nice and pleasant as he invites the two women in. But they say they can’t unless there is a woman at the house with Reed and he assures them his wife is inside. As they get comfortable, Reed says his wife is shy but she’s in the kitchen getting blueberry pie ready. But as time goes on and on, the women become skeptical even though Reed seems interested in discussing religion and faith with them.

Yet it slowly dawns on them that Reed doesn’t have a wife or any other woman in the next room. However, they can’t leave because they locked their bikes to the gate outside and can’t find the key in their jackets. But it doesn’t matter because the door is locked and they can’t get outside anyway. Nor can they call anyone as the rain sometimes blocks out any signal so they can’t call.

And from here the movie takes a turn that just seems lazy. Reed begins to tell them that he doesn’t believe in God or religion as it’s all bad. Yet rather than having a nice thriller as Reed makes the two young women question their own faith, we get a silly second half of the movie in which Barnes and Paxton go into a dungeon-like basement where a decrepit woman is kept in the darkness. Barbarian, while flawed, played with this twist a lot better.

So, this women in the basement leaves a bunch of questions? Has Reed just been keeping her around for what seems like a long time hoping two Mormons show up on his door? Also, it’s the 2020s, who the hell still knocks on a door just out of the blue, especially two young women? Even the Jehovah’s Witnesses have learned as they just use the U.S. Post Service to send me mailers every now and again through the mail. And I usually just throw it away.

The whole “no phone signal” has become a tired trope. Also, are Mormons in this day and age so dumb they wouldn’t send a text message to someone else telling them that they’re at an isolated house off from the road? If they were traveling around neighborhoods with many houses, I can see the logic of two women not being as concerned. Sadly, neither Barnes nor Paxton seem to come off as three-dimensional characters. While the writing/directing duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods present Mormons in an honest portrayal that doesn’t condescend their religion, you can never really tell either apart.

At a very lengthy one hour and 51 minutes with credits, this movie doesn’t have enough material to fill that runtime. Maybe if they had shaved a good half hour off, it might have worked better. But this is a problem with a lot of current movies having to be as long as possible. Topher Grace pops up briefly in a glorified cameo as the Elder Kennedy. Maybe he appeared in the role as a favor but it doesn’t add anything more to the movie.

Grant does a good job in his role. Rumor has it despite his good chap charm from the 1990s, he’s actually not that pleasant of a person. I liked his antagonistic role in Paddington 2 and as the sleazy philandering Daniel Cleaver in the Bridget Jones movies. He really sinks his teeth into this role and you can see him having a devil of a time.

I just wish he was given a better role that doesn’t turn into another crazy killer who talks too much.

What do you think? Please comment.