Get the latest gossip
‘Heretic’ Review: Hugh Grant Is Genteelly Terrifying as a Creep Hell-Bent on Converting Others to His ‘One True Religion’
The two missionaries should have thought twice about entering the elaborate trap where Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ theological mind game takes place.
In A24’s thorny, impossible-to-anticipate thriller, co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (best known as the writers of “A Quiet Place”) ask audiences to accept Hugh Grant as a demented religious scholar so extreme, he’s arranged to trap two Mormon missionaries in his house and torment them into rejecting their faith in Joseph Smith and all his teachings. Beck and Woods’ ideas surely would have been more effective as a university-set tête-à-tête — a fiery back-and-forth between two self-righteous young pupils and their smugly skeptical professor, perhaps — but start to feel not just nihilistic but borderline irresponsible once Mr. Reed’s intentions become clear. It’s a strange conversation for two abstinent members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, and feels suspiciously like the kind of gimmick meant to grab readers’ attention on Page 1 of a spec script (whereas audiences have already bought a ticket and don’t need the same convincing to carry on).
Or read this on Variety