One of the more frustrating experiences in movie viewing is when a story has an intriguing setup, but when it comes time to pay it off, it's at best anticlimatic and more likely annoying to infuriating. Such as it is with Heretic, art house darling studio A24's latest horror film which has disappointment in common with releases like Y2K (just viewed a few nights ago) and MaXXXine from last summer.
Heretic follows Mormon missionaries Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher, Yellowjackets) and Sister Barnes (Chloe East, The Fabelmans) as they struggle to make converts. When not being rebuffed by people walking by, they're being pranked by cruel teenagers. As they approach their last lead, it begins to rain. Answering the door is Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), who invites them in. They initially demur because it's required for a female to be present, but he assures them his wife is home baking blueberry pie. He also asks if they have a problem with there being metal in the walls and ceiling. Ruh-roh.
Initially, Reed seems like a very interested customer as he already has a heavily annotated copy of the Book of Mormon (the Mormon Bible, not the Broadway musical), but as the referenced Mrs. Reed never appears, the girls begin to get more concerned. This concern rises to mild panic as they realize the front door is locked and they have no cell signal due to the Faraday cage construction he mentioned. And the smell of blueberry pie? It was a scented candle. (Not a spoiler; it's in the trailer.)
Venturing further into the house, they find Reed waiting in a large room with a vaguely churchish vibe. Here's where things kick into gear as he challenges the claims of religions to be the "One True Faith" by analogizing various editions of Monopoly & the similarity between The Hollies' "The Air That I Breathe" with Radiohead's "Creep" and Lana Del Rey's "Get Free" with the point being all religions are just ripping off each other. He then tells them they are free to go, but must choose between doors labeled "Belief" and "Disbelief."
What happens when they make their choice comprises the back half of Heretic and it's where things begin to fall apart storywise as co-writers/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (whose last film was the forgettable Adam Driver vs. dinosaurs sci-fi flick 65) find themselves unable to deliver on the heady premise and it spirals into more far-fetched situations which raise more questions as to what is the One True Religion. (Which everyone who watches The Simpsons knows is a mix of voodoo and Presbyterian.)
The more I thought about the last act, the madder I got to the point where I'd docked a point from its initial 7/10 score before going to bed then knocking off another while eating breakfast. Many movies require some suspension of disbelief, but Heretic requires leaps of faith that Evel Knievel couldn't clear beginning with the entire premise resting on Reed constructing this test of faith & rigged house with timed locks and signal-blocking construction seemingly in preparation for these two girls to arrive. What would've happened if two male Elders knocked on his door? How did he get elements for his scheme without anyone noticing?
That a movie about faith literally ends with a deus ex machina is stock horror movie stuff, but divorced from the premise that drew us in. The final shot is also another one of those "What does it really mean? things which bugged me the other night with Juror #2.
It's too bad because the thesis is interesting and the performances are uniformly solid beginning with Grant's calibrated descent from charming to threatening, but he's undercut by the screenplay's tropes. Anyone really surprised by Grant's later career moves must not have seen him in 2012's Cloud Atlas where he played a half-dozen wildly different characters.
Even while the overall story falters on horror tropes and contrivances, it's too its credit that it doesn't play the Sisters as total naifs as they both call BS on Reed's arguments and never succumb to helpless damseling. However, a detail about Barne's again raises questions about what she's doing in her free time.
In my 65 review linked above, I called into question Beck and Woods' writing skills as their script seemed vastly inferior to their A Quiet Place script which must have been vastly rewritten by director and star John Krasinski and my doubts continue here. While they stage their tale with good visual style, aided by Chung Chung-hoon's shadowy cinematography, the writing lets things down.
Score: 5/10. Catch it on cable/streaming.
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