Two young American female Mormon missionaries—eager Sister Paxton and self-assured Sister Barnes—arrive at the home of Mr. Reed, a reclusive middle-aged British man. They tell him that female missionaries can only enter a home if there is a woman present, and Reed invites them in after assuring them that his wife is preparing a blueberry pie in the kitchen. They sit in the living room and discuss religion, with Paxton playfully expressing a desire to visit her loved ones after she dies in the form of a butterfly that lands on their hands. Reed makes uncomfortable comments about their faith and gives them an ominous lecture, arguing that all modern religions are "iterations" of an earlier one which he claims is the "one true religion". When he steps out of the room, Barnes realizes that the smell of blueberry pie has been coming from a nearby scented candle.
Paxton and Barnes attempt to leave, but find that the front door is locked. They follow Reed to his study, where he tells them that the front door is latched on a timer and will not open until the timer ends. He gives the girls a choice of two doors in order to exit the house early: one if they still believe in God and one if they do not. Barnes rebels, repudiating several of his claims, and the girls enter the "Belief" door only to later discover that both doors lead down to the same dungeon. A decrepit woman appears, eats a poisoned pie, and dies. Reed claims that the woman is a prophet of God and that the girls will witness her resurrection. Elder Kennedy arrives to look for the girls, but Reed distracts him at the front door. Unable to hear the girls screaming, he leaves.
Paxton notices that the prophet's body has moved before the prophet apparently comes back from the dead and describes the afterlife. Barnes rejects the prophet's description, noting its similarity to common hallucinations from near-death experiences. As Barnes gives Paxton a signal to attack Reed, he slashes Barnes' throat before Paxton can do so, then claims that Barnes will also rise from the dead. With Barnes bleeding heavily, Reed removes a metal object from inside her arm, claiming it is a microchip that proves that Barnes was not real and that life is a simulation. However, Paxton recognizes the object as a contraceptive implant, and realizes that everything was orchestrated by Reed; while the girls were distracted by their elder's arrival, a second woman hid the prophet's corpse, took her place, and delivered the afterlife description as scripted by Reed. However, the woman added the unplanned comment "it's not real", with Reed's killing of Barnes and attempt to convince Paxton of a simulated reality being an improvisation to cover the plan going awry.
Paxton discovers the underground chute in which the prophet's corpse was hidden and climbs into it, with Reed promising it will show her the "one true religion". She passes through a series of chambers, the last of which has been shut with the lock she used to secure her bicycle before entering Reed's house. The final chamber is full of emaciated women in cages, which Paxton realizes is part of Reed's attempt to prove his belief that all religions are rooted in a desire to control others.
Paxton stabs Reed with a letter opener, but he stabs her back with it as she tries to escape. As they both lay bleeding in the basement, Paxton begins to pray, and responds to Reed's mockery by telling him that she prays out of concern for other people rather than to produce material results. Reed prepares to kill her, but Barnes is revealed to have barely survived his attack and bashes his head in with a plank of wood covered in protruding nails, killing him before she collapses and finally dies. Paxton climbs out of a vent and escapes outside, then envisions a butterfly landing on her hand.
In June 2023, it was reported that Scott Beck and Bryan Woods were writing and directing the film for A24. Hugh Grant and Chloe East were cast in lead roles,[2] with Sophie Thatcher later rounding out the main cast[3] and Topher Grace taking a minor role.[4] Beck and Woods said the film was inspired by Inherit the Wind (1960) and Contact (1997), both films that discuss religion seriously but "in a kind of popcorn movie context". The writing of the film was prompted by the death of Woods' father from esophageal cancer and the questions this prompted about what happens after death.[5] Wanting to ensure the missionary characters were as genuine and authentic as possible and not clichés, the filmmakers consulted various Mormon friends during writing and production, as well as Thatcher and East, who are ex-Mormons.[6] Grant was cast after the filmmakers saw him playing six characters in Cloud Atlas (2012).[7]
Thatcher performs a cover version of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" with a similar arrangement to Mazzy Star's "Fade into You", which plays over the end credits.[13] The statement that "no generative AI was used in the making of this film" is featured during the end credits,[14] with Woods explaining to Variety, "We have no illusions that when people watch Heretic they’re going to go, 'Wait, did they use generative AI?' It doesn't feel like that at all, but it was important for us to put that out there because we think it's something people need to start talking about."[15]
Release
Heretic premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2024.[16][17] It was then released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on November 1 and in the United States on November 8.[1][18][19]
Reception
Box office
As of February17,2025[update], Heretic has grossed $28million in the United States and Canada, and $31.2million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $59.2million.[20][21]
In the United States and Canada, Heretic was released alongside The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Elevation, Weekend in Taipei, and the wide expansion of Anora, and was projected to gross around $8 million from 3,221 theaters in its opening weekend.[22] The film made $4.3 million on its first day, including $1.2 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $11 million, finishing second behind holdover Venom: The Last Dance.[23] The film made $5 million in its second weekend (a drop of 54.1%), and then $2.2 million in its third, finishing in fourth and seventh place, respectively.[24][25]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 291 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10.The website's consensus reads: "Hugh Grant has infectious fun playing against type in Heretic, a religious horror that preaches the gospel of cerebral chills over cheap shocks."[26]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[27] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 70% overall positive score.[23]
Peter Bradshaw, in a review for The Guardian, described the film as "gruesome and bizarre and preposterous" and highlighted the performance of Hugh Grant, calling him "suave, dapper and evil".[28]
McKay Coppins, in The Atlantic, described the film as "A Horror Movie About an Atheist Who Won't Shut Up".[29]
Filmmaker Rich Peppiatt named it one of his top 10 feature films of 2024, praising Grant's performance.[30]
Church responses
The LDS Church released a statement condemning the film's portrayal of violence against women. They then posted an article on missionary safety, intended to "assist journalists and the public with questions and concerns regarding the safety and well-being of missionaries".[31] A number of former Latter-day Saints praised the film for its realistic and nuanced portrayal of missionaries.[6]
Writing in The Christian Post, the Christian apologist Robin Schumacher noted that Mr. Reed became "his own god and asserting control over those around him—something that is indeed frightening".[32] Schumacher concludes that Mr. Reed's behaviour in the film was consistent with Fyodor Dostoevsky's dictum: "Without God all things are permitted."[32] The apologist did criticize the film, however, for Mr. Reed spouting the ahistorical claims of the Christ myth theory.[32] In the same vein, Bret Eckelberry, in his review for Plugged In, critiques Heretic for presenting this "poorly evidenced fringe hypothesis widely rejected by both Christian and secular scholars" as "something new and shocking."[33]
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