I watched Heretic the old school way by watching it at the movie theater. I had some mixed opinions about this movie, although I did generally did enjoy it. The story is about two female Mormon missionaries who go to a man’s house to convert him to Mormonism only to find a little too late that he doesn’t have the best of intentions. Spoiler alerts below so be warned.
After watching the trailer I thought there was going to be a supernatural component to the movie. In fact, I thought that Mr. Reed, played by Hugh Grant, was going to be some sort of demon or at least someone involved in the occult. The movie played on that concept, teasing it throughout the movie but never actually delivering on the supernatural. After watching the movie, I thought it would have been a better movie had they gone that route instead of having Mr. Reed as a psychopath playing a very elaborate trick on them.
The movie was slow at times, particularly around the middle of the movie. It makes up for it by building in tension as the movie goes on, and it had a nice build up. It also delivers on the buildup with a decent ending. I say decent because although there was good drama in that ending, there was a bit of Deus Ex Machina to the ending or at least a lack of believability to it. The characterization and acting was pretty strong, and Hugh Grant as the refined villain worked. So, in the end this movie was a bit of a mixed bag, but there was more good than bad, so I would give it something like three out of five stars if I was using that type of rating system.
