Heretic Movie Review

Heretic (2024) Movie Review

The horror genre in the last few years has seen a massive revival with both mainstream and independent horror contributing to this renaissance. In 2024 alone, we saw a range of massive successes across this broad spectrum, with films like ‘Longlegs’ grossing more than $126 million worldwide, ‘Smile 2’ grossing $138 million worldwide, ‘Terrifier 3’ with more than $89 million, ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ with more than $261 million at the global box office and ‘Alien: Romulus’ making more than $350 million. To pair with these impressive numbers, horror films have also seen an impressive return with critics, boasting impressive critical scores on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes alike. With so many global successes, a couple of films fell under the radar in 2024 including A24’s ‘Heretic’.

The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods who previously helmed Haunt and 65, whilst also writing The Boogeyman and The Quiet Place films and stars Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East.

Heretic was a success for indie film studio A24, grossing an impressive $57 million at the worldwide box office and holding a 91% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film follows two young religious women are drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse in the house of a strange man, where their faith is bought into question as well as their survival instincts. As a fan of Beck and Woods previous works, I was excited to see what they would do with a smaller budget and a contained, horror premise and I am happy to report, it doesn’t disappoint. Heretic was one of the biggest surprises of 2024. After an ambiguous marketing campaign, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and thankfully,

Heretic  delivered a great cinematic experience. The film is hinged on Hugh Grant’s commanding performance. He is menacing and scary in a realistic way and captivates on screen, holding the attention of the audience from the first frame of the film to the last. In recent years Hugh Grant has traded his charming, Romantic Comedy lead charisma, for villainous turns in films such as ‘Paddington 2’, ‘The Gentlemen’, ‘Operation Fortune’, ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ and now a horror villain with ‘Heretic’. The man has had a complete career transformation and I, like most audiences, including the Hollywood foreign press, which nominated Grant for best actor in a comedy or musical at this years Golden Globe awards, love Hugh Grant’s new era.

The supporting cast are really strong here as well, with Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East doing a lot of heavy lifting here in a confined setting, with a limited cast. Sophie Thatcher continues to impress, making a name for herself in the horror genre in recent years, with leading turns in ‘Companion’ and ‘The Boogeyman’ as well as her character-work on Paramount’s hit TV series ‘Yellowjackets. She is great here and the film does a solid job at hiding main character duties between the two actresses. Thatcher is seemingly the lead as the film starts but as we enter the halfway point, Chloe East emerges as the main heroine here, showcasing her acting abilities and really taking command on the screen. Both actresses have to go toe-to-toe with Grant, who has more than 40 years of experience on the big and small screen, and both do an amazing job.

Beck and Woods also do a great job here behind the camera. Their script is airtight, with a lot of questions being asked of the audience philosophically, creating solid talking points and really bringing home the themes of religion and faith. My friends and I were talking about the movie long after we saw it, talking about our own perceptions of faith, what it means to us and how it has evolved over time. Their direction here is also really solid. There are a lot of close-ups of actors which makes the film feel really claustrophobic and quite scary. The way its presented is quite cinematic, even though its small-scale and takes place in one central location. I appreciated this decision as I feel it helped emphasise the horror and ramp up the tension, especially into the films third act.

Overall, Heretic  was a fantastic little horror film. It conveys many interesting ideas and religious themes in a digestible and entertaining way. I loved the direction from beck and Woods, its creative and contains some of the best isolated, horror sequences in recent years. The performances are all terrific, with Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East all doing terrific job in a limited cast and setting. Grant’s performance is an all-time classic and will be regarded as one of the best genre-flipping performances of all time. If you’re a horror fan this is a must-watch, but if you want a contained thriller, it will scratch that itch. Be sure to secure your copy on DVD or Blu-Ray from Sanity today, you won’t want to miss it!

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Christopher Pattison wrote this blog post for Sanity. See more from Chris here