Heretic

Hugh Grant

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods' Heretic is a slightly above average horror flick. The film's initial premise is intriguing, but the film soon degenerates into more standard fare. Two Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) are invited into the house of an older man who initially seems charming, but soon proves to be throughly sinister. This character, in an inspired bit of casting, is played by Hugh Grant who has always been a fount of surface charm. Grant's character has an axe to grind against organized religion and Mr. Woods and Mr. Beck's script provides him with witty rants that are one part pop culture and one part The Golden Bough. Mr. Grant is up to the challenge and eschews vanity to finally look his age, in stark contrast to the very young damsels in distress.     

Ms. East and Ms. Thatcher are also both quite effective. I rate Ms. Thatcher, so good in Yellowjackets, to be a real comer. Her fierceness reminds me of the young Nicola Pagett. Unfortunately, by the time the two young women discover the nastiness in Mr. Grant's basement, the film peters out into a routine thriller. It is too late to count them out, but it seems that Mr. Beck and Mr. Woods' talents lay more in script writing than direction. With a few exceptions, the images in Heretic tend to evaporate in one's mind's eye rather stick. The climax of Heretic, thus, seems more pro forma than terrifying.