Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Heretic Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 28, 2025

There is a long standing tradition, or at least there used to be a long standing tradition, that if some kind of legal proceeding where a judgment needed to be reached involved litigants known to anyone like a judge or jury member, those individuals would either be asked (in the case of a judge) to recuse themselves or (in the case of a juror) not be allowed to serve in that vaunted group of twelve. In that regard and considering the underlying conceit of Heretic, it's probably therefore necessary for me to state that I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I'm old enough that in my childhood Salt Lake City was still rather insular in terms of its "ruling class" (and/or religion), and much less (how to put it?) ecumenical than it is nowadays. Suffice it to say I am not a Mormon*, and as many non-Mormons who grew up in that environment will probably concur, especially those raised back in the veritable days of yore when Mormons were still a majority in the city (they've fallen to less than 50% in the burg, kind of interestingly), a sense of humor about it all became a necessity. In that regard, I unrepentantly joke that Heretic "had me" as soon as I found out it involved two Mormon missionaries being held captive in the home of an apparently demented man they're hoping to convert.

*Yes, I'm well aware that "the church" (as it is known in Utah, no further identification necessary) has jettisoned this nickname, which I frankly find kind of hilarious, given that my music collection is full of albums by the, um, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and, let's face it, the religion's formative tome bears that very name. I'll only add that the film itself uses the term and the main supplemental interview with the film's directors also utilizes it, so I will here, as well. However, in the "a sense of humor is necessary" department, when a rather well known news anchor posted on her Instagram account about an invasion of "Mormon Crickets", I responded on her thread that I thought they preferred to be called Latter Day Saint Crickets now.

Vis a vis that aforementioned ecumenicalism, though, I'll add by way of autobiography only because it plays saliently into this film's dissection of various belief systems and/or denominations, that I had one Jewish parent and one Ostensibly Methodist parent (there's that sense of humor again), and spent my early learning years in a private Episcopalian parochial school in Salt Lake City, which my parents intentionally placed me in to keep me away from what they considered to be a public school system set up primarily to encourage Mormon values and culture. All of this, especially when contextualized into what was then an unavoidable surrounding Mormon aspect, exposed me to a veritable glut of influences and traditions at an early age, which may have only reinforced my own kind of "raised eyebrow" reaction to a lot of religious content (despite the fact that in my musical life I've worked for any number of synagogues and churches as Music Director). This very skepticism is again part and parcel of what Heretic undeniably offers, as perhaps indicated by the film's very title.

The film opens with two female missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), having a perhaps unexpectedly frank discussion about various sexual matters before a brief set of vignettes documents them trying to meet their "quota" of baptisms and/or conversions. That ultimately brings them to the isolated home of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), an avuncular gentleman who had evidently expressed an interest in Mormonism at some undesignated prior point. The two Sisters initially refuse Reed's invitation inside, despite a torrential downpour, until Reed lets them know his wife is there, which makes their entrance into his home "allowable". It probably goes without saying Reed may not be behaving completely honestly, and soon the girls are perhaps in over their heads, both experientially and one might even add metaphysically.

What ensues is a fascinating deconstruction of religion courtesy of a kind of "lecture" by Reed (the film is undeniably talky, despite its apparent horror leanings). For anyone with a "one true faith" background (of any particular nook and cranny of religious dogma), Reed's rant will probably be offensive, but when he resorted to using various "competing" releases of board games to underscore his comparisons of various religions, mentioning how the little remembered Landlord's Game gave rise to Monopoly, and then letting a Bob Ross edition of Monopoly serve as a symbol for Mormonism, I for one couldn't help but guffaw loudly. What seems to initially be playful banter soon becomes more menacing and threatening, which for at least the film's first two acts adds a good deal of sinister energy to the proceedings.

Things arguably start to go downhill, or at least to the basement, once the girls are forced to choose between two doors which will ostensibly lead to their ability to exit Reed's locked domicile, one marked "belief" and one marked "disbelief". The film then starts to tip over into Grand Guignol territory that I found alternately perplexing (there are any number of unanswered questions in various putative "reveals" late in the film) and frankly kind of ultimately silly. Let's also just say that a repeated use of butterflies as a metaphor may not reach the poetic heights of All Quiet on the Western Front. Still, Heretic will probably be a lot of fun for those wanting to see Grant amusingly deconstruct his rom com persona, not to mention those who may share my somewhat jaded sensibilities about the history of religion, not necessarily confined to relative "newcomers" like Mormonism.

Heretic Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Heretic is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of A24 with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Captured with Arri cameras at source resolutions of 4.6K, I'm assuming this had a 4K DI, though there's no information on the IMDb as of the writing of this review and I haven't been able to dredge up anything authoritative online. I'll cut to the chase and simply say I recommend those with the appropriate setups to opt for A24's 4K UHD release (which does not include a 1080 disc), since it at least marginally improves detail levels but really lets the palette shine courtesy of HDR / Dolby Vision. That said, those with "only" 1080 players are going to get a really beautifully detailed and nuanced presentation even at this putative lower resolution and with standard dynamic range. The slightly askew framings (note how things are just slightly fish eyed at times) still offer really abundant fine detail levels, though probably a bit more so in the first hour or so of the film, since the last half is often shrouded in darkness (another place where the 4K UHD's HDR probably aids in offering at least a bit more detail). A prevalence of extreme close-ups (again often with slightly askew lenses or framings) also supports fine detail levels extremely well. Digital grain is probably a bit more subliminal in this presentation than in the 4K UHD version.

Heretic Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While maybe not "over the top", either literally or figuratively, Heretic offers a subtly immersive Dolby Atmos track that delivers solid surround activity despite what might seem to be cloistered environments that may not offer great opportunities for "wow" effects. That may in fact be true in one way, because this is a really appealingly nuanced sound design for the most part, one that injects discrete channelization to probably unsettle listeners, and which is commendably free of things like startle effects. Chris Bacon's score is also nicely spacious and engages the side and rear channels effectively. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Heretic Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Writer-Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods


• Seeing is Believing: Behind the Scenes of Heretic (HD; 15:19) has some fun interviews with Beck and Woods, along with the three main stars of the film.

A24 provides another handsomely packaged release, with the DigiPack enclosing some kind of disturbing if cheeky (on the reverse side) art cards. The DigiPack is enclosed in a slipbox.

Heretic Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the formative memories of my childhood is of my Mother standing at our front door and reading the veritable riot act to Mormon missionaries who would turn up on our doorstep regularly (as in virtually weekly), always at dinner time. It got so bad that my Mother found out the name of the Bishop ostensibly supervising the efforts to convert the "heathen" in our neighborhood, and in a kind of hilariously threatening way telephoned him and alerted him to my father's status (he was a Major General, the ranking Army officer in the entire state of Utah, and commanded Salt Lake City's gorgeous historic Fort Douglas, which typically provided our family a bit of "insulation" from the prevailing culture). She finished by asking him how he'd feel if she started showing up at his house every evening at dinner time to try to convert him. Suffice it to say we had no further mealtime interruptions. In another little piece of personal trivia which kind of plays into the wonderful casting of Hugh Grant, I recently returned from a visit to London, where one of my relatives lives around the corner from Grant in the Kensington neighborhood, and sees him regularly out and about, evidently always affable and never in unapproachable "movie star" mode (she pointed out Grant's cool gray Ferrari to me on a walk one evening). Grant's performance is one of the undeniable delights of this film, and if the screenplay can't quite get its arms around various high-falutin' metaphysical ideas, there's still quite a bit of smart writing, especially for those who are interested in the history of religion and/or belief systems. Technical merits are solid, and the supplements very enjoyable. Recommended.