Saw Heretic this morning with my mom. Nothing wrong with a bit of light horror over brunch. If you haven’t seen the trailer, here it is:
I actually want to get into my deeper thoughts about this movie, particularly watching it as an atheist and humanist, but a few generalities first:
Hugh Grant absolutely crushes it. As an actor who is generally boxed into doofy nice guy characters, him getting a turn at horror was either going to be really good or really bad, and he fucking runs the table. But unlike, say, Robin Williams in One Hour Photo, he doesn’t show his acting chops by playing opposite his normal type in a really effective way. Instead he does his usual routine of jocular, avuncular, occasionally pulls very classic Hugh Grant faces, but he’s added in an undercurrent of absolute sociopathy and meneace that really works with the film’s concept. Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, who play the two hapless Mormon missionaries, are also really good.
It’s not a movie that has a feast of jump scares or gore. Its true currency is dread and tension, which it tries to crank up with long scenes of Hugh Grant doing an impression of everyone’s favorite college philosophy professor lecturing on religion punctuated by a sometimes literally descent into wrongness hidden under a suburban facade. I am a massive weenie, and I watched this with no problems; I feel like at times the Hugh Grant as Socratic lecturer went on a bit longer than necessary before the next turn of the narrative crank, but your mileage may vary on that. I think it could have gone from the 110-minute run time down to 90 without really losing anything, but we seem to be in the era of every movie that could be comfortably an hour and a half reaching for two hours anyway. (Red One, which I saw yesterday and also enjoyed for very different reasons, is 123 minutes and really didn’t need to be that long either.)
So basically, if you’re interested in watching a dread-focused movie and don’t mind listening to people talk about religion for stretches, it’s worth your time. The performances alone are worth it; everyone’s giving their all.
But now, I’m going to get into spoiler territory. I want to talk about what I feel is the true point of Heretic‘s horror.