General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

Heretic (2024 film)

Heretic is a 2024 American psychological horror-thriller written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, in which two young Latter-day Saint missionaries are trapped in the home of a diabolical stranger, Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), and forced to prove their faith in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse¹. Distributed by A24, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2024, opened in United States theaters on November 8, 2024, and grossed about $60 million worldwide against a reported $10 million production budget²^•³. Critics rated it highly, with an 89 percent Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, while opening-night audiences gave it a C+ CinemaScore⁴^•⁵.

Key fact	Detail
Directors and writers	Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, previously co-writers of A Quiet Place (2018)⁶
Cast	Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed; Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes; Chloe East as Sister Paxton; Topher Grace as Elder Kennedy⁴
Release	TIFF premiere September 8, 2024; US theaters November 8, 2024; streaming December 10, 2024²^•⁴
Box office	$10.83 million opening weekend in 3,221 theaters; $59.78 million worldwide, of which $27.99 million domestic⁷
Budget	About $10 million³
Reception	89% Tomatometer (295 reviews), 76% Popcornmeter, Metacritic 71, CinemaScore C+⁴^•⁵
Recognition	Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Screenplay³

Spoilers

Premise and plot

Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are young missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who go door to door spreading the teachings of their faith⁸. They knock on the door of a cottage owned by the courteous Mr. Reed, who welcomes them in, offers drinks, and promises blueberry pie while appearing interested in learning about their religion⁹. He soon reveals a sinister motive: he traps the women in his home and subjects them to psychological torment, challenging their beliefs in increasingly sinister ways¹⁰.

The film's horror emerges largely from conversation rather than from conventional scares. Woods said the goal was "to write something frightening where the scare emerges from the dialogue, through its words and ideas," so that audiences could bring their own beliefs about religion to the movie⁶. Reed's monologues compare the origins of modern religions to the iterative creation of pop-culture artifacts such as Radiohead's "Creep" and Jar Jar Binks, and he uses a Monopoly board to make arguments about religion¹¹^•¹². The Associated Press review notes that the film opens with the two missionaries discussing the marketing of condoms and asking "What else do we believe because of marketing?", a question that echoes through the story⁹.

Production

Casting and financing. Once the script went out to the market, A24 joined as financier and global distributor in early summer 2023². Production took place in Vancouver under a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement over approximately 30 days in October and November 2023². Woods recalled that the experienced crew applauded Grant's work almost every day after filming, and Beck described the interplay between Grant and his co-stars as "lightning in a bottle"².

The crew included cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung and composer Chris Bacon¹³. The two actors playing the missionaries are themselves former church members⁶.

Release and box office

Heretic premiered in Special Presentations at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2024². A24 released it in United States theaters on November 8, 2024, and it debuted with $10.83 million from 3,221 theaters, finishing second for the weekend behind Venom: The Last Dance⁷^•⁵. With a budget under $10 million, the film turned a profit quickly; it ultimately grossed $59.78 million worldwide, of which $27.99 million came from the United States and Canada⁵^•⁷.

Home release followed quickly: streaming began December 10, 2024, and the film reached Max on March 7, 2025⁴^•¹⁴. A special Blu-ray and 4K UHD edition, exclusive to the A24 Shop, includes commentary from Beck and Woods, a making-of featurette, and collectible postcards with set photography by Kimberley French¹.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 89 percent Tomatometer from 295 reviews and a 76 percent Popcornmeter from more than 1,000 verified ratings; the critics consensus says Grant "has infectious fun playing against type" in "a religious horror that preaches the gospel of cerebral chills over cheap shocks"⁴. Metacritic assigned a score of 71¹³, and IMDb users gave it 7.0 out of 10³. Opening-night audiences polled by CinemaScore gave a C+, a sharp gap between critics and general audiences⁵.

Where critics agreed and split. A survey of 27 published reviews found that nearly every review begins and ends with Hugh Grant, whose turn as the genial host turned tormentor was widely called the reason to see the film; Thatcher and East drew steady praise, and several critics singled out the dialogue and the tension of the first hour¹⁵. The reservations cluster around the second half, which most reviewers found more conventional, trading argument for standard scares¹⁵. The Associated Press review called the plot by the end "a murky, muddled and disturbing mess" while still rating the film three stars out of four⁹. Mark Kermode, the British film critic and co-host of Kermode and Mayo's Take, wrote that the film shows "that a good idea and a single location can be a really adventurous roller coaster ride"⁴.

Religious themes and response

The film generated controversy and intrigue among Latter-day Saints and former members over its portrayal of the faith and missionary life⁶. Church spokesperson Doug Andersen responded before release: "Like many Hollywood productions, this is a work of fiction and is not based on actual events. It portrays the graphically violent treatment of women, including people of faith, and those who provide volunteer service to their communities." He noted the church has almost 80,000 missionaries serving worldwide and equips them with safety training⁶.

Reed's arguments draw on the claim that the story of Jesus Christ reworks earlier deities such as the Persians' Mithras, the Egyptians' Horus, and the Hindus' Krishna. The Atlantic identified this as the fringe hypothesis known as Jesus mythicism, which is rejected by nearly all scholars of Christian history and the ancient world but has found a wide audience on the internet¹⁶. Religion-and-horror scholars placed the film in a longer tradition: Brandon Grafius, a Biblical studies professor at Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, said the film shows "how religion is being used to assert control," and Stacey Abbott, a film professor at Northumbria University whose research includes horror, noted that it questions the nature of faith and confronts the audience with a debate about choice, faith, and free will¹⁷.

A 2022 student short film from Brigham Young University, The Handbook, shares the premise of two Mormon missionaries entering the home of a seemingly sweet stranger who traps them inside; a source close to A24 said the similarities were "pure coincidence" and that Beck and Woods had not seen the short¹⁶.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026