Over the last few months, there’s been a lot of buzz about A24’s Heretic, a horror movie that earned rave reviews following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In it, rising scream queen Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) and The Fabelmans star Chloe East star as two Mormon missionaries who knock on the wrong door one rainy night and wind up in a game of psychological cat and mouse with Hugh Grant’s Mr. Reed. A diabolical intellectual, he not only wants to do away with our heroines but also shake the foundations of their faith.
While at TIFF, I spoke with the entire cast, including Grant, who explained what attracted him to his first horror role in many years (since Ken Russell’s Lair of the White Worm, which he doesn’t seem overly fond of). I also spoke to East and Thatcher, who grew up in the Mormon faith, about how the film subverts audience expectations of the character’s naiveté, while Thatcher shares her wish to one day play a horror villain. I also spoke to the writers/directors, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place), about how the film is unusually dialogue-driven for a horror flick, with it almost seemingly like a play (an allusion Grant didn’t care for – as he thinks saying something is play-like means it’s boring, which the movie is not at all).
Check out the interviews embedded above and read my review here! Heretic opens in theaters tomorrow!
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