Heretic

⭐️

Proof that there is a God - and She’s angry - arrived in 2024 when she smote us with Heretic, a horror film written, produced and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place).

Perhaps angry at us for the 2024 American Presidential elections, God casts Hugh Grant as the star (an obvious callback to the temptation allegory of Eden’s Tree of Life and Knowledge in her first and only - but very popular - work of fiction, The Bible) tempting us to take a bite. Grant oozes sweetness hiding a rotten core as Mr Reed, a charming but deadly homeowner welcoming inside and out of the rain two Mormon missionaries, Sisters Barnes and Paxton (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, respectively).

Sophomoric in writing, acting and directing, the movie is thankfully only 10 minutes long (if you stop watching by then as I did). Nominated for a Golden Globe, Grant nearly saves the soul of this film. But alas, he can only be the glittering gold spiral atop a tabernacle of ridiculous sci-fi-like plot twists that exceed credibility much like getting your own planet in the afterlife. Third grade pontification about religion and the power of faith can’t elevate this plague to the soaring heights of The Book of Mormon, and instead we find ourselves in the depths of hell tormented by childish critiques on religion in general, and the Mormon faith specifically.

(Spoilers)

It sucks.