Distraught at not having brought anyone into the church yet, Sister Paxton (Chloe East) confides in Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) about her prideful desire to be a dutiful instrument of the faith.  The two young missionaries make their way to the home of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), the last on their list of leads for the day, who insists they come in out of the rain.  He assures the two women that his wife is just in the kitchen, cooking a lovely blueberry pie, as to enter a man’s house without his wife present would be a sin, but when it is discovered that it was all a ruse, Mr. Reed reveals more sinister secrets, including the key to unlocking the one true religion. 

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods write and direct Heretic, a 111-minute examination of organized religion and the power it has over the development and continuation of society.  The poppy think piece debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival ahead of its release by A24, who also helped to develop the title.  Beck and Woods continue their streak of injecting ideas into what could have otherwise been rather empty genre fare, but Heretic is one of their most overt forays into philosophy, though their arguments may not always be in good faith. 

The main draw of the film is that it offers Grant a long ramp to flex as a villain and chew the scenery with sinister grins and flowing frantic monologues.  Dressed in a chunky sweater and thick glasses by Betsy Heimann, Scott and Beck are a little too quick to show their hand in having Reed cross that line from being just a quirky character who we can not quite get a solid read on to one that is downright evil.  With pages upon pages of text to deliver, Grant excels in a role that could be overwhelming for a less charismatic actor, even if the script does not allow much time for a spark to ignite any true interest in what is being said.  Simply put, the film is too verbose to be as shallow as it is, and the thin argument that Reed returns to time and again is not developed enough across the almost two-hour runtime. 

To be fair to the filmmakers, here, the back half of the narrative does take on a more traditionally supernatural flavor, with the introduction of the Prophet (Elle Young) who Reed has been holding captive in the basement.  Her involvement is used to prove – or rather disprove – the idea of an afterlife in a consulted plot where Reed poisons the woman and brings her back so that she can detail the vast nothingness that met her on the other side of death.  It offers a reprieve from Reed’s philosophizing, but aside from some generalized creepy imagery, it does not turn the film fully into horror and offers little new to excite or thrill an audience.  Heretic also marks another stumble in A24’s recent marketing strategy, making the film out to be a bit of a “lady or a tiger” though the final product is far less enthralling or engaging.

It is a real shame because the later reveal that Reed’s house sits upon a vast catacombs could have been exploited in such a genuinely exciting way while also creating a larger wedge in the fatal flaw of faith that it is supposed to be a blind adherence.  Scott and Beck tease at this idea but shy away at the last minute that his house sits atop the mouth of hell despite the marketing of the film not being shy at all to tease at this theory. Instead, and to be fair, admirably, they are so focused on proving their own theory about the interconnectivity of the major religions – a theory well documented by historians, theologians, and literature students alike – that their tunnel vision denies us an organic argument and not just more regurgitation of ideas.  There are so many stories about the temptation of theological figures to turn their back on their faith, but perhaps Scott and Beck in their futile attempt to not be just another iteration of the same old same old, lost in the desert story opted instead to present nothing at all.  Beyond that, they have ample opportunity to exploit any of the more philosophical questions that often pester at the concept of faith, but they, like the people they are almost seeking to condemn who find comfort in religion, find comfort in the derivate twists that are revealed late in the film that Reed was behind this all along.  They do try to subvert in the final moments of the film, invoking the supernatural in a last-ditch effort to stand out from the crowd, but it is so half-hearted and out of place that it just serves as an insult to the audiences who have given them this much time and attention to this point.  You can not rely on deus ex machina after spending your entire film seeking to disprove God.

Heretic is a magnification of the duo’s worst tendencies, and under the notoriously hands-off A24, there was no opposition that would have sent these budding thinkers back to the page and presented something truly ponderous.  It is a shame because beyond Grant’s devilishly, just shy of campy turn, Philip Messina‘s production design is always offering audiences something interesting to see in the twisted maze of a house and the various artifacts that litter the halls.  Unfortunately, this was exploited by the marketing team to tease at something the film ultimately is not, and Scott and Beck are not able to present something bold enough to appease our letdown.  Had their thesis been anything more esoteric than any run-of-the-mill college freshman – or Christian highschooler’s, for that matter – first Christological crisis, it would have greatly improved the entire narrative which is already structured well enough to present, deceive, and conclude, but it is clear they did not put near enough research or bleed their own frustrations with organized religion into this film to make it worth our while.  At the very least, it does not present as a lazy endeavor, but it hardly lingers in the way they clearly hope it would have as these conversations are tried and settled in the minds of audiences long before they take their seats or fire up their streaming service of choice, genuflecting in front of their almighty screens only when the remote slips from the couch to the floor.