Heretic

Heretic Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, and Topher Grace

Director: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

What’s Good: Hugh Grant does an evil version of himself and comes across exactly how you think it is. The camera work is excellent, and Thatcher shines.

What’s Bad: The film starts very intriguingly by laying out many interesting points, but when the final revelation is given, it all feels like a waste of time.

Loo Break: The last forty minutes of the film lack the energy and dread of the beginning, and you can have a break right before the ending and not lose much.

Watch or Not?: Watch only if you are a Hugh Grant fan or have nothing else to do.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Cinemas, Video On Demand

Runtime: 111 Minutes

User Rating:

We love scary films, and we get scared and think about what we would do if we were in those scary situations. Would we do better than the characters in those stories? Could we defeat the villain and save the day? It is all very intriguing and fun, but as more and more media is being created, it gets hard to come up with something original and execute that idea well enough. Heretic, a new horror movie, falls flat in that last stretch, even when the premise is rather captivating.

Heretic Movie Review: Script Analysis

Writing a nice script is challenging; you have to draw characters well enough so that audiences understand them in just about 90 minutes for everything to make sense; you also have to tell the story at a nice pace so no one gets bored, alongside many other challenges that the writers and directors of Heretic, Scott Beck, and Bryan Woods were not able to overcome, because it is not the case that Heretic’s script is a bad one, but that the script goes nowhere in the end.

Being able to end your movie on a strong note is vital so that people remember your movie way after the credits roll, and sadly, Heretic fails in this regard because the film builds to a mystery that cannot be solved in any meaningful way. Several monologues in the movie feel on the nose, and at times, like reading from Wikipedia, it is all interesting.

The idea of a movie that tries to challenge religion is bold, and pitting characters with different belief systems is the perfect choice if you need to start some drama. Still, Heretic doesn’t know how to make the characters clash. While it works in favor of the film’s point, it makes for a boring story to tell, as there is only one active character in the movie. We must wait for him to do everything, or nothing will happen in the story.
Without an intense back-and-forth between the characters, the ideas and concepts presented feel too shallow and tedious, especially towards the end when you think that all should come crashing down. In reality, the movie feels like it ran out of gas and is trying to find a new gas station along the way, but it does not see anything and lets the engine run cold.

Heretic Movie Review: Star Performance

Fortunately, Heretic has a fantastic, tiny, but good cast that brings the story together and makes the film worth watching.

On the other hand, Sophie Thatcher is one of the best young actresses working right now, and she delivers in a role that would make her the perfect final girl. However, the script decides that Chloe East should be the start, and it doesn’t work, not because East is a bad actress but because the script fails, and Thatcher’s character is so much more enjoyable. Topher Grace also appears for a second in a weird cameo.