1 Star of the Movie ‘Heretic’ Left Mormonism
The horror movie Heretic is one of the most prominent depictions of Mormonism in popular culture. One of the stars of the film was once a Mormon. Another was friends with Mormon missionaries while the movie was being filmed.
How ‘Heretic’ tried to explore Mormonism in an authentic way
Heretic is about a pair of Mormon missionaries: Sister Barnes (played by Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (played by Chloe East) who get kidnapped by a creep named Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant, revealing he should have been playing villains all along). Unlike other religious horror movies like Rosemary’s Baby or The Exorcist, Heretic contains a lot of dialog about religion and its role in society. While the film critiques all the major Abrahamic religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, and various ancient paganisms, it saves most of its ire for Mormonism. Interestingly, the film isn’t exactly coming from outsiders.
The movie was directed by A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. During a 2024 interview with GQ, Woods discussed the film’s leads and their relationship to Mormonism. “They wanted to keep everything grounded, and wanted to find that authenticity that they know,” he explained. “Chloe has friends to this day that are missionaries on missions right now, so she was texting them while we were filming.
“And I think Sophie, who had left the church earlier in her life, and who has family members that are in and out, it definitely helped layer her performance as Sister Barnes — somebody who grew up in the church, but has this lingering question of, ‘Is it real?’ or ‘Do I fit in here?’ and ‘What do I believe?'”
Why the movie took the right approach to Mormonism
Perhaps the movie’s Mormon connections explain its tone. There’s a line between attacking a religion and attacking religious people. Heretic reheats a lot of New Atheist talking points when it critiques Joseph Smith and his church, but it has a lot of empathy for the Mormon missionaries.
That’s for the best on a sociological and narrative level. Empathy is generally a good thing. On top of that, Heretic would not work if it centered on characters who the audience didn’t like.
Why the directors felt making ‘Heretic’ came with special responsibility
Woods felt like Heretic had to be good simply because Hollywood is struggling to adapt to the age of streaming. “There’s no question that every filmmaker right now feels an immense responsibility to deliver, to keep movies around,” he said. “It’s a privilege and a major responsibility to keep exciting people.”
Beck seems to have put his all into the movie as well. “It’s the way that we designed Heretic, to have these moments where hopefully you’re terrified, but other times you’re laughing at some off-color remark that Mr. Reed says, and you’re feeling that course through the audience in a way that enhances the experience,” he explained. Whether you like the film or not, it certainly feels like the directors, actors, and screenwriters put a lot of work into it. In a world full of cookie-cutter horror movies, Heretic feels like an original product.
The plot of Heretic might be off the wall, but the lead actors give it an air of authenticity.
