The Heretic – Film Review
by Brian Merriman

Written & Directed by Scott Beck & Bryan Woods
Starring: Hugh Grant as Mr Reed, Sophie Thatcher as Sister  Barnes, Chloe East as Sister Paxton.

I recently saw a movie clip where Hugh Grant, clad in a pink-striped Victorian prison outfit, was tap dancing to a Stephen Sondheim number from the Musical ‘Company’. Grant has made his career in the light comedy genre mastered by American actor, Cary Grant (no relation) decades before. Comedians are first and foremost masters of the manipulation of human emotions – they make us laugh. The casting of a manipulator of human emotion in this sinister role of Mr Reed, the heretic, is therefore as apt as it is successful. There may yet be a ‘gong’ or two heading Grant’s way, as he continues to reinvent himself. As a younger actor, he was best known for being the quintessential British ‘cad’ or at worst, the charming but emotionally slow gent. He clearly has broken out of the stereotype he exploited successfully in his younger years.

Scott Becks and Bryan Woods’ ‘The Heretic’ is a timely offering for Halloween. It has many of the required elements of ‘horror’ but it should not be confined exclusively in this genre. The scenario has heavy rain, power cuts, an inescapable fortress, the innocence of youth and the creepiness of the exploited and damned. In that, it suits the seasonal timing well. It is bloody and graphic.

There is a quirky, well-researched almost Da Vinci Code underscore. Two young female missionaries of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), well-studied and contrasted by Thatcher and East, go on a recruitment visit to a strange house. They are intent on obeying the safety rules of the Church. Their characters grow apace into intelligent, brave individuals, despite finding themselves in an alien cul de sac, both physically and spiritually.

They find themselves in physical and spiritual danger, as everything they believe in is challenged by the well-researched ‘Reed’ whose religious argument is powerfully delivered, full of relatable analogies, aided by Bacon’s familiar soundtrack.

The tensions are heightened by a no-escape maze of a house, trickery and deliberate mind-bending. Grant has a lot of dialogue which he delivers in impeccable English. His energy, use of emotion and that scary, pseudo-casual yet reassuring delivery, add to the life-and-death dilemma facing our two young missionaries. His ‘kindly demeanour’ is sharply and suddenly contrasted by manipulation, violence and deceit, which in turn makes these innocent young women respond in a way you won’t find in The Book of Mormon.

Despite the final moment playing to the implausibility of many a mainstream horror movie, the writing, the research, and the performances ensure almost two hours of challenging discourse between those who believe and those who know ‘better’. Well worth seeing.