Heretic

Heretic is half a good movie that unfortunately falls completely off a cliff into unimaginative horror. The setup is strong as we meet two young Mormon missionaries making their final stop of the day to share the word of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the middle-aged Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). Tailor-made to play off an actor like Grant's collective work, the charming man is of course not what he seems as the two young women slowly realize as an open discussion of religion becomes something far darker.

Realizing the wife he spoke of is nonexistent and the front door is locked, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) find themselves in the man's study where they are offered the chance to leave through either of the pair of doors they might choose, one designating their belief and the other disbelief. Up until the young women walk through one of those doors, the script by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods succeeds with the red flags piling up for the young women as Reed's diatribe becomes more heated.

The trouble with Heretic is the film has nowhere interesting to go after spending so much effort to set up a payoff that never comes. Reed never directly threatens the two women leaving the smallest doubt, wondering if they are overreacting to the man's unusual behavior. But once the truth is revealed you will be praying to return to ignorant bliss. Sadly, the tension built up over the first-half of the film is wasted in Reed's bizarre experiment that ends, quite literally, in a bloody mess.

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• Title: Heretic
• IMDb: link