Heretic (2024)

[SeanC]

Two Mormon missionaries (Yellowjackets star Sophie Thatcher and The Fabelmans supporting scene-stealer Chloe East) walk into a trap set by a man who's out to prod them about the nature of religion, the latest A24 feature film.

Thatcher and East both come from Mormon backgrounds, which adds a nice air of authenticity to the characterizations. Both are very good, but Grant steals the show here (and is set up to) in a flashy villain role that makes great use of a lot of his rom-com mannerisms with a more sinister edge.

[DanaK]

This starts streaming on Max on March 7

http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2025/02/12/a24s-heretic-begins-streaming-exclusively-on-max-march-7-227411/20250212wbd01/

[DoctorAtomic]

And I'm watching on Max.

I'll wait till more people watch. I like anything that skewers religion.

I've been enjoying High Grant's latter phase of his career playing rather interesting characters.

I don't know how I feel about the end.

 

[Madding crowd]

I thought the first part was excellent-you could feel how unsettled the girls were but they tried to stay polite. The rest of the movie was not successful to me as the endless maze of basements and the prophet stuff just were over the top. Hugh Grant was quite good!

[DoctorAtomic]

I liked the setup of deconstructing religion, especially, LDS, but they kind of abandoned the theme in the back half. I read a comment elsewhere that it would have been better if Reed forced the girls to kill him to justify their faith but in doing so they have their faith shaken. 

I felt like Paxton got away with it, and there wasn't a price. 

 

[cpcathy]

I thought the first half was great, really nerve wracking. But every horror movie I’ve seen lately has fallen apart in the second half, and turns into a bloody battle between the antagonist and the female protagonist (Men, Barbarian, just to name two). Is this a studio thing, or do test audiences really want it? It’s getting annoying.