Heretic

Hugh Grant has spent the last decade systematically dismantling the "stuttering Englishman" persona that made him the king of the 90s rom-com. It’s been a joy to watch, but nothing prepared me for the sheer, skin-crawling delight of seeing him answer the door in Heretic. Within five minutes of him appearing on screen as Mr. Reed, I realized that the bumbling charm of Four Weddings and a Funeral wasn't gone—it had just been sharpened into a weapon. Watching him offer a blueberry candle and a theological debate to two unsuspecting missionaries is like watching a cat explain the physics of a mouse trap to the mouse.

I watched this during a rainy Tuesday matinee, and the theater was so empty that the person three rows behind me was eating a salad out of a very crinkly plastic container. Normally, that would drive me insane, but the rhythmic crunch-crunch-crunch actually added a bizarre, domestic layer of tension to the film’s slow-burn opening.

The Gospel According to Hugh

The premise is deceptively simple: two young Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher, who was so haunting in Yellowjackets) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), knock on the wrong door. They’re looking to share the Word; Mr. Reed is looking to deconstruct it. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the duo who wrote A Quiet Place, prove here that they don't need monsters in the woods to create terror—they just need a well-furnished living room and a man who is the most articulate basement-dwelling nightmare ever put to celluloid.

What makes Heretic feel so "now" is how it engages with the modern obsession with deconstruction. We live in an era of "video essays" and "deep dives," where everything from Star Wars to organized religion is picked apart for its internal logic. Mr. Reed is essentially the final boss of that culture. He’s not a slasher with a machete; he’s a guy with a PowerPoint presentation and a very specific grievance against the "iteration" of stories. His monologue about the history of Monopoly (the board game) is genuinely one of the most riveting things I’ve seen in a horror film in years. It’s a TED Talk given by a polite serial killer, and Hugh Grant delivers it with a twinkle in his eye that suggests he’s having the time of his life.

Architectural Dread and Sound

The film starts as a bright, airy conversation and slowly descends—literally and figuratively—into a labyrinth. The production design by Philip Messina deserves a shout-out here. The house feels like it’s subtly shrinking as the girls realize their "exit" is an illusion. It’s a Masterclass in spatial storytelling. You begin to map the house in your head, and then the film pulls the rug out from under you, making the familiar feel alien.

The horror mechanics here lean heavily on psychological dread rather than jump scares. When the scares do come, they are earned through silence. Chris Bacon’s score is minimalist, allowing the creaks of the floorboards and the terrifyingly calm cadence of Hugh Grant's voice to do the heavy lifting. I found myself leaning forward, trying to catch every word of the debate, only to realize I was being lured into the same trap as the sisters. It’s a rare horror movie that respects the audience’s intelligence enough to let a 20-minute conversation about religious philosophy serve as the "action" sequence.

A Future Cult Contender

While Heretic performed well at the box office ($51 million on a $10 million budget is a massive win for A24), I suspect its true life will be found in the "cult" sphere. It’s the kind of movie people will watch ten times just to see if they can spot the moment the girls could have escaped, or to memorize Mr. Reed’s insane rants.

The film also benefits from a surprising amount of practical ingenuity. Turns out, the production team actually built a fully functioning "theological puzzle box" set that allowed the actors to physically interact with the traps. Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are phenomenal foils to Grant; they aren't "scream queens" who make dumb decisions. They are intelligent, faithful women who use their own logic to fight back. In an era where horror often relies on "elevated" metaphors that are too vague to be scary, Heretic is refreshingly literal. It’s about the danger of an open door and the even greater danger of an open mind that has no floor.

The trivia nuts will love knowing that Hugh Grant allegedly spent weeks researching actual cult leaders and famous atheists to nail the "smug but inviting" tone. Also, Topher Grace (remember That '70s Show?) shows up as Elder Kennedy, adding a brief but necessary layer of outside-world context that makes the isolation of the main house feel even more claustrophobic.

Heretic is a claustrophobic, intellectual thrill ride that proves you don't need a massive budget to create a grand spectacle. All you need is a terrifyingly sharp script and a veteran actor willing to turn his legendary charm into a jagged edge. It’s a film that asks uncomfortable questions about faith and control, and while it doesn't provide easy answers, the journey into the basement is well worth the price of admission. Just maybe skip the blueberry pie afterward.