Heretic (2024)★ 7.1/10

Fun to relax with a thriller after an exhausting 10-day Vancouver Int'l Film Festival. I liked the film a lot, especially the amazing setting and especially Hugh Grant in one of the best roles I've ever seen him perform.

If I had to sum up this movie in one word, it would be overhyped. I expected a real-life battle royale, but after an hour, the characters still hadn't entered the chamber.

There’s no cheap, brainless jump scare in this movie. It’s more like a battle of the minds. That alone could make it the horror movie of the year. There is an abundance of dialogue, and faith gets twisted around like it’s nothing, but by the end, it really gets to the heart of what religion is - control. A24 definitely knows how to pick some solid horror films.

The film is pretty much perfect up until about two-thirds of the way through. Talking about the origin, development, and meaning of religion is something that will never lose its appeal. The problem is in the final stretch. It stops at the idea of control, which feels like the safer, more audience-friendly route. But in doing so, it misses the opportunity to become something extraordinary. If Hugh Grant had been the devil himself, using endless questions and tricks to tear faith apart, I think the movie would’ve been amazing.

If you know me, you know how big a fan I am of movies produced by A24. They have yet another one that I’ll be obsessively trying to convince you to see, HERETIC. This is produced, written, and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who previously directed one of my worst movies of 2023 called 65, but they also wrote A QUIET PLACE. Filmed right here in Vancouver B.C in just over a month, this is a horror film where the scariest aspects of it come from what is being said, not what’s being shown. There were no jump-scares at all here, which was super refreshing for me. The story is about two young missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) is a convert who is more street-smart than her counterpart Sister Paxton (Chloe East), who was born into it. They knock on the door of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), a charismatic, very intelligent man who is curious about what they have to say. With the promise of his wife being home and the smell of blueberry pie, they enter the home. This movie is very dialogue driven. Normally it would be too heavy with it, but the script is so tight and so smart and intriguing, I couldn’t get enough. This is easily my favourite performance from Hugh Grant. He still has his past rom-com charm, but with a dash of evil twisted in. During this movie, his character actually makes some great points about belief and religion that even I tended to lean towards. I personally am not a religious person, and I just recently realized I have pretty much the same viewpoint as Ricky Gervais. The ideas presented in this movie are open to interpretation, and I don’t think it’s anti-religious. It just gives the characters and us, the audience, poignant questions about religion. Fun fact: Both Sophie and Chloe are actually ex-Mormon. This is my favourite kind of horror movie, one that makes you think. The message of the movie might not be for everybody, but what movie is these days? Overall, HERETIC is a must-see movie for the overthinkers and master debaters out there. Remember, question everything.

É um filmes que prometem uma experiência bastante perturbadora, com o decorrer do filme, acabam reféns de sua própria ambição. Esse filme tem a proposta de um terror religioso de duas missionárias.

Hugh Grant como: todo ateu de 16 anos depois de ouvir seu primeiro disco do Bad Religion.

Mi puntaje está dividido en 2:

10 puntos hasta que las chicas bajan al sótano.
3 puntos desde que están en el sótano.

Puntaje total: 13. Entre 2: 6.5. Que lo redondeo a 7.

O filme é praticamente perfeito até cerca de dois terços do final. Falar sobre a origem, o desenvolvimento e o significado da religião é algo que nunca perderá o seu apelo. O problema está na reta final. Ele para na ideia de controle, que parece ser o caminho mais seguro e mais amigável ao público. Mas ao fazê-lo, perde a oportunidade de se tornar algo extraordinário. Se Hugh Grant fosse o próprio diabo, usando inúmeras perguntas e truques para destruir a fé, acho que o filme teria sido incrível.

Não há nenhum susto barato e estúpido neste filme. É mais como uma batalha de intelectos. Só isso poderia torná-lo o filme de terror do ano. Há uma abundância de diálogo, e a fé é distorcida como se não fosse nada, mas no final, realmente chega ao cerne do que é a religião – o controle. A A24 definitivamente sabe escolher filmes de terror.

Se eu tivesse que resumir esse filme em uma palavra, seria superestimado. Eu esperava uma batalha de verdade, mas depois de uma hora, os personagens ainda não haviam entrado em cena.