HERETIC (2024)

• 07 October 2025

by Benjamin Goodheart

HERETIC (2024) is a wasted opportunity. What starts off as interesting battle of theological wits bolstered by three great performances descends into a momentum-less drag of soft Mormon apologia. You could be forgiven if you thought this movie had something of value to say, instead of, as my esteemed colleague Scott Douglass said, “treating r/atheism as the equivalent of abusive extremism.” And indeed, by the end of the movie there is no substance to what Hugh Grant’s Mr. Reed is getting at besides the insanely contrived idea that “control” is the one real religion.

The movie’s set up is engaging and entertaining, if occasionally stilted. Two Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe Eastman) knock on an eccentric older man’s door with the intent of getting the rookie missionary (Eastman) a baptism under her belt. Soon they find themselves chatting in the man’s living room waiting to meet his wife and eat some blueberry pie. However, things quickly start to feel off. The women realize they are in trouble quite early on, but their politeness keeps them from fully fleeing until it is too late. By then, the games have already begun, and Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) has begun sparring with the missionaries about their theological limits and beliefs. Things start to fall apart for the story by the middle of the second act, but like the missionaries, one holds onto hope that something of worth may come from this endeavor. Unfortunately, by the time the third act kicks into gear, it is clear that the writer/director duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ intent is less on making a great horror film and more on sticking their hats on the theological equivalent of “let people enjoy things <3.” Considering the two sides in this are the Latter Day Saints and a bookish eccentric who steamrolls conversation with many a (relatively elementary) reference, the “game” as it were seems rigged from the jump.

To wit, the horrific history of Mormonism and the adjacent fundamentalist sects are barely interrogated. The most the audience gets in terms of a history lesson is an abridged conversation regarding polygamy, which does not even dare to mention the pedophiliac tendencies of such practitioners. It almost goes without saying that such incidents as the Lafferty double murder, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, Warren Jeffs, or especially the Mountain Meadows Massacre are entirely and conspicuously absent from Mr. Reed’s line of questioning.

HERETIC could have been an interesting mediation on belief systems while also being a legitimate horror movie worth one’s time if Beck and Woods really went for it. By this, I mean they should have embraced the super natural and grotesque beyond just it being a “magic trick.” Resurrections should have occurred in earnest and portals should have been opened, and the viewer should have been able to experience real horror. Instead, the movie’s only real saving grace is getting to see Hugh Grant do a terrible Jar Jar Binks impression. Other than that, HERETIC is pseudo Mormon propaganda moonlighting as a horror film. Unfortunately, like some of Mr. Reed’s theological arguments, the flick barely holds up under any serious intellectual analysis.

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