What is the one true religion? That is one of several leading questions posed by Hugh Grant’s professorial villain Mr Reed in the hit new film Heretic, which twists examinations of faith into viciously entertaining psychological horror.
Mr Reed’s targets are, at least externally, representatives of religious certainty: two sister missionaries from the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who knock on his door with hopes to convert him. Sister Barnes (Yellowjackets’ Sophie Thatcher), a convert from Philadelphia, is quieter, more droll and naturally skeptical. Sister Paxton (Chloe East), raised Mormon in Utah, is more stereotypically chipper, polite and credulous. Both believe Mr Reed – at least enough to step inside and escape a downpour – when he says that his wife is baking pie in the other room and will join them shortly; sister missionaries are not allowed to be alone with a man unless another woman is present.
