‘Heretic’ Movie Review: Horror Movie or Dumb Screed?
Some horror movies are content to manufacture cheap scares. The new film Heretic tries to be a little more cerebral while coming across as no more intelligent than your average Friday the 13th movie. Here’s a look at why Heretic soils an intriguing premise with a lot of pseudointellectual chatter.
It’s surprising that ‘Heretic’ isn’t more controversial among movie fans
Heretic centers on two Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, who find themselves in the home of a talky recluse named Mr. Reed (played by Hugh Grant with bravura). Mr. Reed seems intelligent and interested in their message but vaguely sinister. Little by little, they realize he has put them in a torture trap of his own design meant to show them that there is no God.
It’s surprising that a film that depicts an atheist who violently hates religious people has received no pushback from the skeptic community. While the film insults religion a lot, it unintentionally reinforces the idea that godless people are dangerous. That would be forgivable, except for the fact that Mr. Reed seems far too impressed with his own intelligence. He thinks he’s found the answer, but all he’s found are some cherry-picked ideas from an atheist subreddit.
The movie contains a lot of misinformation about religion
Beyond that, the film tries to be intellectual while spreading a lot of false history. During one of his screeds, Mr. Reed says that Judaism was the world’s first monotheistic religion. Zoroastrianism and Atenism are both ancient monotheistic religions that predate Judaism.
Mr. Reed also promotes the idea that Jesus Christ is based on pagan gods like Horus, Mithras, and Lord Krishna. This idea has been rebutted by numerous historians who have noted that supposed similarities between Jesus and these other deities have been fabricated. Movies like Zeitgeist and Religulous revived these theories in the 2000s, but they seemed to be on the decline. Sadly, Heretic will only make this little slice of misinformation more and more prominent.
Why ‘Heretic’ focuses on Mormonism
During a 2024 interview with GQ, Heretic directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods discussed the film’s origins. Beck said the movie centers on Mormonism because it’s a new religion relative to mainstream Christianity and Islam. “It also comes from a personal connection,” he added. “Twelve years ago, we made one of our first feature films in Salt Lake City, the hotspot of Mormonism. Through that experience, we ended up making lifelong friendships with so many people from the Mormon faith, and that became our induction into the religion, the lifestyle, the culture.”
Woods also said the movie was designed to subvert stereotypes. “One of the things we found is that whenever Mormons are depicted in the media, it’s always with this kind of naiveté; a condescending, like, ‘Maybe they’re not as smart as everyone,’ this attitude that comes with it,” he said. “And so one of the things we’re trying to do with the film is subvert that expectation, and maybe touch on the hint of naiveté on the surface … but we also wanted to represent the depth of the people we know, [who] are smart, and cool, and unique.”
That depth didn’t make it into the final product.
