How’s this for a horror-movie pitch: two Mormon missionaries discuss theology with a learned scholar for almost two hours.
With Heretic, the Oscar-nominated writers of A Quiet Place have fashioned a most unlikely nailbiter. Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher play young evangelists from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, handing out leaflets and knocking on doors around an uninterested hilly town. East’s naive Sr Paxton has yet to score a convert, while Thatcher’s Sr Barnes has a decent hit rate and is eager for her companion to make an impression on Mr Reed (Hugh Grant, having a ball), a chirpy fellow who invites the two girls into his home for blueberry pie and a chat.
Spoiler alert: there is no blueberry pie. Not yet.
Grant improvised the best moment of Bridget Jones’s Diary: confronted by an enormous pair of knickers, his romantic rotter cries, “Hello, mummy!” In Heretic he puts a diabolical, uniquely Grantian spin on the baddies of Paddington 2 and Dungeons & Dragons.
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His unnerved proselytisers find themselves trapped with a gifted interrogator who chirpily dismantles their faith with a series of analogies. Monopoly and Christianity are lumped together as fraudulent facsimiles. If you’ve ever wanted to watch Grant croon Radiohead’s Creep or do a Jar Jar Binks impression to debunk religion, this is the movie for you.
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Paradoxically for its genre, Heretic works best as a talky miniature. The icky third-act reveals in Mr Reed’s basement are less effective than the coercion and menace of the earlier exchanges. The Aristotelian purity of the concept and claustrophobic setting are far more satisfying than the villain’s silly explanatory spiel.
Chan-wook Park’s regular cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung trains his camera on dark, snaky corridors and Thatcher and East’s terrified faces as the Mormon girls realise the hopelessness of their predicament. It’s no fun for them, but it’s never dull for us.
In cinemas from Thursday, October 31st
