Heretic: Imperfect Yet Impressive Holy Horror

Luke Johansen
Dec 16, 2024
6 min read

I can confidently say that Heretic is one of my favorite movies I've seen put out by A24, and I don't necessarily say this because it's head-and-shoulders above anything else put out by the studio. Sure, it's a good movie, but I'm not going to lie and say that it possesses the quality to compete with a best-picture winner. Instead, I say that because it's one of the most distinct films I've seen out by the makers of Everything Everywhere All At Once, a studio that already has one of the most distinct voices in AAA cinema. And more notably, I say that because, as a Christian, it feels like Heretic was almost made for me. And I know that may sound a little bit strange to you, because this movie is a religious horror film, and I do get that this genre doesn't really fly in Evangelical circles. But hear me out, because if you're a mature believer who's had a crisis of faith at some point in your life, I would encourage you to give Heretic a watch. For the rest of you, this film is a solid, original, and mostly satisfying horror movie that you'll probably be glad you watched because, if nothing else, I can confidently say that I've never seen anything quite like it. Not even Barbarian, which is the closest I can get as far as similar movies go, quite intrudes on the unique experience that Heretic is. Grab your magic underwear, gather around the fire with all of your wives, and let's get started on this review.

It's just a joke from a known joker, Mormons. Love you guys.

Heretic follows Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, two Mormon women on a mission, as they encounter the mysterious Mr. Reed and are subjected to increasingly mysterious and sinister tests in a home that would make the architects of Lego jealous.

Right off the bat, it was apparent that the visual aspects of this film were on full throttle. Cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung captures an intelligent image that does more with less, and he clearly understands the concept of framing. To go a little bit deeper, I want to assure you that Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East respectively give wonderful performances as Sisters Barnes and Paxton, and really sold this movie for me right from the get-go, though their writing is also incredible, so I don't want to discount anyone who was involved in the pen-to-paper aspects of Heretic rather than the film-to-screen ones. Their dynamic is awesome, and just minutes into the film, I legitimately almost felt like I knew them. Best of all, the two women are not mere Mormon stereotypes and never really play into any of the tropes we might have expected them to, even addressing them at points throughout the film in intelligent and sometimes humorous ways. However, the greatest presence on screen in Heretic is definitely Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed, as he should be. The very first time he appeared on-screen, I was just grinning ear to ear, and that is not an exaggeration. His character flip-flops from surprisingly charming all the way to unsettlingly menacing, and yet Grant is still able to nail a distinct and singular identity and distinguish Reed not just from anyone else in this movie, but from any horror villain in any other movie, at that.

The battle of wits on display between Reed and the missionaries is very interesting, and though a lot of the revelations and ways the film wrapped up its concepts left some to be desired, the way this movie twists and turns is just really cool, and best of all, Heretic feels like an intellectually honest movie. If you're worried that it's an hour and fifty minutes of an all-knowing Reddit-addicted atheist lecturing poor, uninformed Christians about the shortcomings of their worldview, I can dissuade you of that notion, because the discourse and battle of wits between Mr. Reed and especially Barnes is very interesting, and far from one-sided. I almost can't believe it myself, but ladies and gentlemen, I think we've finally found a secular movie, a holy horror movie at that, that treats Christ-followers with an air of respect and dignity while also acknowledging their intelligence. Count my mind blown. Also, the attention to detail on the part of Heretic is awesome, and just fleshes out the world of the film in a way that makes everything happening in the foreground, the battle of wits, feel like it has genuine stakes. This attention to detail is expressed through the awesome and amazingly practical set that was built for this movie. If something exists in the world of Heretic, chances are it's going to be important to the plot in some way, and possibly even a metaphor of some kind. For the most part, this film is really tight in all aspects, and I appreciate the restraint on the part of its makers to avoid indulging in story or visuals at the expense of storytelling integrity. In addition, most of the concepts in this movie are well fleshed out in ways that make us understand why they exist in this movie's world in the first place, so much so that some things that may not have even mattered to us as the audience are somehow revealed to be important in ways that might just make you go wow.

Of course, this film has flaws, just like any other film would, and the biggest shortcoming of Heretic is definitely it's third act. In a lot of ways, Heretic was too smart for its own good and introduced a lot of high-concept plot points that it didn't really know how to resolve, and so a lot of the third act left something of a bad taste in my mouth and the dirty term cop-out in my mind. This is a shame because the first two-thirds of the movie is just spotless. There's too much exposition-dumping in the final one-third of the film, and even though these expositional sequences did raise some interesting philosophical implications and ideas, they just didn't justify their own existence enough to feel like anything other than easy answers, and I got the sense that this movie partially collapsed under its own weight right as it was about to cross the finish line, and this is just a bit disappointing for me to write down because I legitimately loved this movie and was rooting for it all the way through, and so it's a little hard to see one of the best aspects of a film partially drag it down in the end. But all in all, I really liked Heretic a lot. It's very aesthetically pleasing, interestingly nuanced (though I've no doubt that some believers will be offended by it), and mostly well-plotted, even if it can't quite stick the landing. I think the most similar-feeling movie I can compare it to is 2022's Barbarian, so if you liked that film, I imagine you'll love this one. The acting, as I mentioned, is top-notch, and watching this soon after I had seen Conclave legitimately makes me wonder if we could possibly be entering a new era of screen performance.

So ultimately, even if this film does have some glaring flaws in its final act, I count myself lucky I watched it, and I didn't really expect to be saying this, but if you're a Christian who's had a crisis of faith at some point in their life, I can't recommend this movie for you highly enough. I think you'll probably extract a lot of value from it. That said, this movie does contain some frightening and disturbing images, some brief but relatively bloody violence, and an inappropriate sexual conversation at the very start of the film between Barnes and Paxton that is played for laughs and, strangely enough, doesn't really feel out of character for the two missionaries. However, there's not really much bad language at all to speak of in this movie outside of words that would fly in a PG-rated film. But back to the idea of extracting value out of a holy horror film as a Christian. Doubt me if you will, but the film's core tenets of belief vs disbelief are interesting, and will probably resonate deeply with you if you've found yourself in such a crisis before. Christ calls us as believers to always have an answer for the hope that is within us, and I can confidently say that I've never seen a film portray this idea as remarkably as Heretic does, even if its main protagonists may be Mormons, which you can take as you will. This was, in a lot of ways, the perfect holy horror movie for me, even if some of its structural fundamentals could have used a little more refining. And if you're a believer and can also see what Heretic is trying to do, I imagine that it could very well be the perfect holy horror movie for you as well. Just be sure that you're grounded in your faith if you would like to take the approach of the evangelical because this film does raise some challenges to both Christianity and unbelief, although I would argue in a helpful way that puts an emphasis on a dialogue between believers and unbelievers. Heretic is an original piece of cinema that contains a surprising amount of nuance, and it's firmly cemented itself as one of the most visionary outings from A24.