Scott Beck and Bryan Woods who created the story and co-wrote the movie The Quiet Place, know how to create a horror thriller. Yet their new film, Heretic, starring Hugh Grant, is based on a premise that might really chill the hearts of every sister missionary and those who love them. In the film, two missionaries, tract into the home of a man with a twisted psyche. They hope to teach him the gospel, and no worries, his wife is baking a pie in the kitchen so they can enter.
Yet the moment gets immediately more dire, when they realize that smell of blueberries was coming from a candle, not a pie, and far from there being a wife in the kitchen, they are locked in with a psychopath who will test their endurance and faith to the point of desperation. He begins by scratching “belief” and “disbelief” on two doors and the fearful game begins. Will the missionaries escape?
While this idea might sell tickets, it couldn’t be more terrible. We can only hope that no mentally ill person will grab this concept from the movies and do a copycat. Clearly, the film makers can see how vulnerable and innocent a young missionary can be, but they exploited this for the sake of storytelling without regarding the possibility of endangering any one in real life. Disappointing and short-sided to say the least.
Here’s the trailer.
Scott E.September 3, 2024
Short-"sighted". Also, if you watch movies or television, there are so many countless places where we revel in, marvel at, or laugh at someone's pain. Any sitcom, if told in the form of a drama, is awful tragedy. Often humiliating, distressful and shocking. Yet we laugh away without a care in the world. Horror movies are less about satiating ourselves on other's pain and, through the eyes of another, confront our own mortality. While I don't know if I will watch it. I think it's fascinating. I'm interested in what it is ultimately trying to say. And really hoping it isn't some black as pitch, hopeless affair that portrays LDS as inept insincere and misguided. That said, I can see being critical of a trailer. You see it and you can like it or not. But nobody but a few have even seen this movie. So perhaps we should reserve judgment?
LarsJuly 11, 2024
I agree. I hate horror movies. I used to watch some of them (mostly the old black and white ones) but at some point it occurred to me that you are watching someone get hurt for enjoyment???? It doesn't really make sense. It would not be enjoyable if it happened for real.