Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed, becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse.
Heretic lives and dies by Hugh Grant's mesmerizing turn as Mr. Reed — a genuinely surprising piece of casting that pays off brilliantly, elevating a largely dialogue-driven chamber thriller. The film is essentially a three-person debate-cum-trap, and the script crackles with sharp theological provocation for much of its runtime. However, the plot is structurally limited — it's a bottle movie that relies heavily on a single extended conversation — and the tension dissipates rather than escalates toward the finale. The ending feels abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying, failing to deliver a payoff commensurate with the intellectual tension built up. Cinematography is competent but unremarkable, leaning on close-quarters intimacy without particularly distinctive visual language. The premise of a predatory skeptic trapping religious women is intriguing but not wholly original.