Two young Mormon Church missionaries, confident Sister Barnes and timid Sister Paxton, arrive at the home of a reclusive middle-aged man, Mr. Reed. He invites them in, assuring them that his wife is preparing a blueberry pie in the back of the house. They begin to discuss religion, with Reed making several uncomfortable comments about their Mormon faith and the nature of belief. When Reed steps out of the room, Barnes realizes that the smell of blueberry pie is from a candle, the front door is locked, and they have no phone signal.
They follow Reed to his study, where he gives them a threatening lecture arguing that all religions are adaptations of one another, and claims to have found the one true religion. He gives the girls a choice of two doors to go through to exit the house: one if they still believe in God, and one if they do not. Barnes rebels, repudiating several of his claims. They enter the "Belief" door, but discover both doors lead to the same dungeon.
A decrepit woman appears, eats a poisoned pie, and dies. Reed claims that she is a prophet of God and the pair will witness her resurrection. A church elder arrives looking for the girls but leaves without hearing their screams. The prophet resurrects and describes the afterlife. Barnes rejects the prophet's description, noting its similarity to common hallucinations from near-death experiences. When Barnes gives Paxton a signal to attack Reed, he slashes Barnes' throat and claims that she will also resurrect.
After Barnes bleeds out, Reed removes a metal object from inside her arm, claiming it is a microchip that proves that Barnes was not real and the world is a simulation. Paxton recognizes the object as a contraceptive implant, and realizes that everything was orchestrated by Reed; while the girls were distracted by the elder's arrival, a second woman hid the prophet's corpse, took her place and delivered the afterlife description as scripted by Reed, adding an unplanned comment: "It's not real." Reed's killing of Barnes and attempt to convince Paxton of a simulated reality was an improvisation to cover the plan going awry. Paxton discovers an underground chute in which the Prophet's corpse was hidden and climbs down, with Reed promising it will show her the "one true religion".
Paxton finds a chamber full of emaciated women in cages, locked with the bike lock she used before entering Reed's house. She realizes Reed's conclusion: that a desire to control others is the root of all religions. Paxton stabs Reed with a letter opener, but Reed stabs her as she tries to escape. As they bleed in the basement, Paxton prays, telling Reed that it is done to show kindness to others rather than to produce material results. Reed prepares to finish her off, but Barnes, who was still alive, kills him with a plank of wood before dying. Paxton climbs out of a window and a butterfly lands on her hand; she earlier expressed a desire to be reincarnated as a butterfly that appears on the hands of her loved ones. It vanishes, leaving Paxton alone in the snowy landscape.
In June 2023, it was reported that Scott Beck and Bryan Woods wrote and would direct the A24 film, Heretic. Hugh Grant and Chloe East were cast in lead roles.[10] Beck and Woods said the film was inspired by the films Contact and Inherit the Wind, as films that discuss religion seriously, but "in a kind of popcorn movie context". The writing of the film was prompted by the death of Woods' father to esophageal cancer, and the questions the event prompted about what happens after death.[11] The filmmakers consulted various Latter-day Saint friends during the writing and production, wanting to ensure the missionary characters were as genuine as possible and not clichés.[12]
The production was granted an interim agreement allowing filming during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[13] On a budget of under $10 million,[14]principal photography took place in Vancouver over 30 days from October 3 to November 16, 2023.[15][16] The film was shot in chronological order.[17]
Release
Heretic premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2024.[18][19] The film was scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on November 15, 2024,[20] before it was moved up from its original release date of November 15 to November 8.[21] It was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland a week earlier on November 1.[1]
Reception
Box office
As of December 8, 2024[update], Heretic has grossed $27.5million in the United States and Canada, and $13.4million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $40.9million.[3][2]
In the United States and Canada, Heretic was released alongside The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Elevation, Weekend in Taipei, and the wide expansion of Anora, and was projected to gross around $8 million from 3,221 theaters in its opening weekend.[22] The film made $4.3 million on its first day, including $1.2 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $11 million, finishing second behind holdover Venom: The Last Dance.[23] The film made $5 million in its second weekend (a drop of 54.1%), and then $2.2 million in its third, finishing in fourth and seventh place, respectively.[24][25]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 250 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Hugh Grant has infectious fun playing against type in Heretic, a religious horror that preaches the gospel of cerebral chills over cheap shocks."[26]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[27] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 70% overall positive score.[23]
In response to the release of the film, the church released a statement condemning its portrayal of violence against women. Four days before the film's release, the church posted an article on missionary safety to its "Newsroom" website, intended to "assist journalists and the public with questions and concerns regarding the safety and well-being of missionaries".[31] A number of Mormons and ex-Mormons praised the film for its realistic and nuanced portrayal of Mormonism.[12]
