Heretic

 I still remember the autumn of 1994 for three different reasons, this was when British acid jazz funk soul band Jamiroquai released their second studio album The Return Of The Space Cowboy and i was in the Swedish city of Gothenburgh at the release weekend at their biggest record store Bengans. It was also this autumn i saw the latest Roland Emmerich film Stargate on a cruise ship to Denmark who had a special screening of the film on board the ship together with my sister. But before all of this happened there was one movie release in Sweden during this autumn that had become a huge success at the box office and that was the romantic comedy known as Four Weddings And A Funeral. I have never been a huge fan of romantic comedies and i remember seeing this poster in cinemas thinking:- This does not look like a film for me. I did not see this film in cinema that year so i decided to wait until the film was released on VHS instead in case i had nothing else to watch. I believe i didn´t rent this film on VHS until the late summer of 1995, because there were so many other films i were more interested in at that time. Four Weddings And A Funeral turned out to be a typical romantic British comedy with a lot of characters and some crazy stuff happening as well. Looking back at this film i don´t think it´s one of the terrible romantic comedy films, it does have some charming moments. But there was one actor i just could not connect with in this film and it was Hugh Grant as the character Charles. I wouldn´t say the performance is terrible but i just didn´t feel like i cared about his feelings for Carrie ( played by actress Andie MacDowell ). Over the years that followed Hugh Grant actually surprised me big time by doing a great performance in the charming 2002 comedy-drama About A Boy ( i also love the movie soundtrack by artist Badly Drawn Boy ). This film really showed that if he gets the right character, Hugh Grant can work really well with a good script included. In his career he have made some good performances in certain films and ever since i heard about a film called Heretic i became really curious about this film. It seemed very different from what we have seen Hugh Grant do in the past and this caught my attention. I love it when an actor does something completely different and challenge himself. Is this one of the films you need to see this winter or is Heretic nowhere near as good as i was hoping it to be?

Two young Mormon missionaries, confident Sister Barnes ( Sophie Thatcher ) and timid Sister Paxton ( Chloe East ) have a hand written note of what homes they should visit. On this note they have the adress to an older man named Mr. Reed ( Hugh Grant ). As they knock on his door he welcome them both in, promising they will also meet his wife. Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton inform Mr. Barnes that they are there to tell him about the book of Mormon. At first it seems like an ordinary conversation but these Mormon ladies get a feeling that something is not quite what they expected with Mr. Reed. They get a feeling this man may not be as friendly as he might have seem from the beginning.

I have noticed that Hugh Grant have really tried to step away from his past, not repeating himself as he did back in the 90´s and early 2000 taking on characters that almost felt the same. Heretic is really his biggest proof yet so far in his career that he really can act very powerful. This is without a doubt the best acting performance i have personally seen Hugh Grant do but there are more things i really have to talk about this film as well. I love it when a film takes place especially at a house and the plot is mostly focused on one location. There may be different rooms of this house but this film manage to express a disturbing image through the right camera angles, the dark that seems to be surrounded in this home with no glimpse of hope other than eternal darkness. The most interesting part of Heretic is where we really get to see how disturbed the personality of the character known as Mr. Reed ( who is of course played by Hugh Grant ). How he loves to play games and challenge others especially in the subject of religion to convince especially two Mormon young women that he have the answers. There is a lot of dialogue scenes in Heretic and if you don´t like too much dialogue i would recommend that you still give this film a chance. You see this is a much more psychological horror film with depth than we usually see. The dialogue is very important to understand the psychological expressions of Mr. Reed, why he is behaving the way that he does. Not only is the acting brillant by Hugh Grant but i feel that both female actors Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East give powerful performances. Heretic gives a very fascinating look into the mind of a mad man, but also gives us a lot of interesting points regarding religion and faith. The horror elements are simple but very well constructed into the plot. Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods ( who directed the sci fi dinosaur movie 65 with Adam Driver ) have really stepped up big time on a film quality level with Heretic compared to 65. This film does not only look great but have some of the most interesting dialogue scenes i have seen in a long time between fascinating characters. Heretic clearly shows that you can make quality horror on a limited budget and this is definetely a film you should see.

Rating: DDDD