[FILM] Heretic (2024)
Hugh Grant has really won me back during his current career turn. It seems like he really relished playing despicable people in the past couple of years, and he does so remarkably well - it's always fun seeing so well known for being cast into a very narrow niche of roles break out and go completely against type.
Heretic is, structurally, quite similar to Barbarian, in that it starts out as a psychological thriller and gradually devolves into operatic horror madness. Two Mormon missionaries arrive at a seemingly charming man's house in order to convert him, and as the evening progresses, their discussions on religion, belief, and Monopoly (?) turn into something altogether more dangerous.
The first half's success hinges on the kind of horror that was similarly well done in the Danish film Speak No Evil, which is centered around being in a situation that feels a little uncomfortable but feeling like it would be rude to leave. The second half is less subdued, and while I have seen a few reviewers mention that they thought it was a step down, I really enjoyed myself for the film's entire runtime. I do, however, think that the answers posed in the last 10 minutes or so of the film are not really answered in a particularly satisfying way - but then again, how could they, given that the questions are age old theories on spirituality that humanity has dealt with for millenia.
So overall, this is a very entertaining two hours of mind games, but falling a bit short of other A24 classics.