Hugh Grant is an acolyte for the Christian self-persecution complex in 'Heretic'

When one is disappointed in how a film is executed, one is inclined to say there was a great movie hiding in there that could’ve come out, if not for some sort of obstacle. 

But writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are simply too dishonest, too cowardly in what their intentions truly are in Heretic, which sees two young Mormon girls cross paths with a very bad man who has a very sick game he wants them to play. 

The girls in question, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are at least quick to sense the creep factor in the way young women are when they are alone with a much older man who is a stranger to them. But the key factor is that these are girls, not women, so they feel obligated at a certain point to play Mr. Reed’s (Hugh Grant) game rather than attempting to think of a way to opt out of it entirely.

Women tend to know the score; that men need no reason to foist cruelty on them, so figuring out the reason for it is beside the point. But the point of it all is in fact Mr. Reed’s obsession, and he knows that Barnes and Paxton are just the type to play into his fantasies. They’re Mormons and true believers in a belief system dictated by men and reinforced by women and most of the people in their immediate orbit, so when they arrive at his home, he knows they’re ripe for it.

As Mr. Reed continues to toy with the duo, what we learn isn’t really his methodology, or even what his plan is, because it becomes rather clear, and it’s been done. When the cinematic window dressing is stripped away, Reed is merely a common killer with a bunch of women in his basement that he controls through carefully curated routines and fear. What is revealed is the movie’s obsession, and what it values in the girls we are naturally inclined to fear for. 

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Barnes and Paxton are your classic odd couple, with Paxton as the picture of virginal sincerity wrapped in pink, and Barnes as the black clad, brooding brunette harboring doubts. Both are bonded through long years of experience, and what they each offer as Reed closes in is what deems them disposable and not. Horror movies tend to reinforce existing morality and norms, and Heretic is no exception, ramping up the Christian persecution complex in the bargain by having the depraved, academic atheist come for their daughters.

Paulien Kael wrote in her review of the 1976 film Sparkle that a good girl artist is a contradiction in terms, and so too is a saintly Final Girl. The survivors that horror movies regard as worthy may conform to notions of which girls to root for, but she’s also not going to make it to the end without blood and tears. In other words, she’s the likable girl next door who discovers she has reserves of strength, a fighter who gives a powerful killer more than he bargained for, a contradictory way for a female audience to likewise find empowerment in a genre and a character they can see themselves in despite its limitations, both in and out of the theater.

But the twist in Heretic isn’t that the sugary Paxton has strength, but a brain. She figures out Reed’s game, but she must remain the persecuted saint, so pure that she can’t even beat the bad guy. In her same review, Kael also noted that “the ‘“bad girl”’ is the cheapest, easiest way for the movies to deal with the women with guts.” Hence, Heretic discards Barnes in a fashion that’s as shocking as its tawdry, but it also recognizes that her presence is the best hope for the one it sees as worthy of life - its vision of the perfect girl literally cannot exist on her own. 

Likewise, it’s supposed to be surprising that it’s Hugh Grant who’s gone bad, but he’s actually played the villain for quite some time, as anyone with even surface knowledge of the Bridget Jones movies can attest. His performance, which builds on the smarminess of his other villains and curdles into outright violence here is at least interesting most of the time, but since Heretic presents facts without really thinking about them, it ends up feeling small, especially for a movie that opens with the majestic, mountainous nature of its Boulder Colorado setting. The people could only feel big by being compressed into a small space, and those Heretic focuses on only feel depressingly unworthy of our attention.

Grade: D-