‘Heretic’ movie review: Hugh Grant slays this religious chiller 

Hugh Grant shines in a thrilling, thought-provoking film challenging beliefs and faith, with exceptional performances and tension-filled storytelling

What an extraordinary turn by Hugh Grant! In a jaw-dropping bit of contra-casting, the roughish cad, Daniel Cleaver, from Bridget Jones Diary, turns into the calculating Mr Reed in this thriller from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the duo behind the post-apocalyptic thriller, A Quiet Place.

The movie opens with Sisters Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Paxton (Chloe East) discussing the power of suggestion and how much we believe because we are told it is so. The two young women are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Mormons. Barnes is the more assertive of the two while Paxton is diffident.

After a bunch of unproductive encounters, the two visit Reed, a middle-aged Englishman, who lives in a lonely house on the top of a hill and who has indicated his interest in Mormon beliefs. The weather turns and as the rain beats down with a threat of snow, the two young women are convinced to accept Reed’s hospitality, after he assures them of his wife’s presence (baking blueberry pie no less) when they say they cannot enter a man’s house unless there is a woman present.

Barnes quickly realises there is something wrong and when the two women try to leave, they get drawn into a cat-and-mouse game with Reed who seems hell-bent (pun intended) on showing Barnes and Paxton the one true religion.

For a movie with three characters, one set, and a lot of dialogue dealing with abstract concepts including faith, belief, organised religion and control, Heretic effortlessly keeps the tension ratcheted to squirm-worthy levels.

The gore is kept intentionally low and so when the violence happens, it is truly shocking. The cinematography is extraordinary — from the young women carrying their bicycles over steps going up and down, to the shot following a character running out of the basement through the miniature, they are beautifully composed and pregnant with meaning.

While horror movie staples including the dank basement, the creepy, solitary house and the scary, smiling man are present, the true terror of Heretic comes from the challenging of beliefs. Reed is the patron saint of the shouty rationalisations of today. Half-truths and vague generalisations are propounded with the weight of truth. It is not chance that the first shot of the movie shows Paxton and Barnes sitting on a bench which has an advertising sign.