The genius of Hugh Grant’s big horror turn in Heretic is that, really, he’s the same Hugh Grant as before. He still rushes headfirst into his sentences, only to end them with a sheepish smile. He still parcels out morsels of sincerity with a shrug and a chuckle, bashful at any admission of vulnerability. In short, he’s irresistibly charismatic. The targets of his character Mr Reed, Mormon missionaries Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), concur right up to the point they realise they’re inside a horror film.
Grant’s performance is all the more frightening because he never leans into the bug-eyed, grinning, head-tilted trademarks of onscreen psychopathy. Instead, he remains unnervingly placid and casual, which transforms this latest offering from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods into a story about the abject terror of being cornered by a man addicted to debate. Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton have come to Mr Reed’s home with the intent to convert him to their faith, only for him to immediately turn the tables on them by confronting them with their church’s past doctrine of polygamy.
