Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are missionaries from the Mormon Church who find themselves at the door of the religiously curious Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). But it seems that Mr. Reed’s motivations for requesting further information about the Church are not entirely altruistic. 

The concept of Heretic is that it is a horror movie based around asking you to challenge your beliefs on the world as you see it. On the surface the question posed is whether Mr. Reed has the answers to what the one true religion is or is he an insane serial killer? But scratch the surface and the questions are really about everyone’s world view of belief and disbelief and how that is tainted by their upbringing. 

Personally I have always found this subject deeply fascinating. As someone who was raised religiously and chose not to follow that belief system as an adult I related personally to a lot of the intellectual challenges raised in the film. But what I enjoyed about the manner in which the film resolves is that it still chooses to ask you to decide what you think the answer is. And that answer will be deeply coloured by your belief system. 

What makes Heretic so good is that it is a very entertaining story alongside asking those questions. There are a few twists and turns thrown in for good measure alongside a genuinely creepy atmosphere. 

Playing on Hugh Grant’s career history to date they have a character leading the film made even more sinister by his thoroughly charming demeanour. In fact it is hard not to be amused and entertained by his arguments against religion that focus around the game of Monopoly and copyright infringement cited by The Hollies, Radiohead and Lana Del Rey. Whilst both Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East do a superb job of characters desperately trying to be nice and not offend as they become increasingly frantic about their position. 

Perhaps the only negative aspect of the film is that all of the tension that has been so superbly built in the first half of the film is lost when it switches from psychological horror to actual horror. 

A superb watch and another fantastic performance in Hugh Grant’s incredibly interesting late career.