Don Reviews "Heretic"

There have been some great ways of storytelling in film, especially in the modern era.  For instance, the 1975 classic film Jaws does not show the shark itself until over an hour in, making it more about what you don’t see versus what you do. I love when a film does that by forcing me to think about everything that is going on, and this week’s review fits into that category.

Heretic was both co-written and co-directed by Scott Beck (65) and Bryan Woods (Haunt), with a cast that includes Hugh Grant, Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher, and Topher Grace.  Sister Paxton (East) and Sister Barnes (Thatcher) are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and while on their mission, they go meet a man named Mr. Reed (Grant) at his home to discuss their religion.  When they enter the home, things devolved into a situation that could threaten their well-being.

The majority of this film takes place in the home of Mr. Reed, which in a way becomes its own character in the way the train did in Snowpiercer.  I liked how the house can seem normal from the outside but seems to get more and more dangerous the deeper the characters went.  Except for a few minor roles like that of Topher Grace, most of Heretic is occupied by Grant, Thatcher, and East.  Grant and East do well and tend to feed off each other like they were twins, but I have to give a huge shout-out to Grant, whose performance is so good he deserves to see a number of nominations at the end of the year.  He truly transcends a lot of the roles that he has played in the past that focused mostly on comedy and romance into one that was so dark that it reminded me of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

You can say this is a horror film, but it is so much more than that with an intensity that goes beyond the normal gore and violence (which you can expect) into more of a psychological thriller that works on a high intellectual level.  There are tense moments as the dangers these characters face, but much like Jaws, it doesn’t blatantly show it; you know it’s there, but it seems to lurk around each corner.  Heretic may not be for everyone, but if you love films like Saw with only a fraction of the gore, like this film, so as a horror film, it gets my “coveted” full-price-in-the-theaters recommendation.