A24 Nears the End of 2024 With Terrifying New Horror Movie Heretic 

Abbie Klein

This year, the horror genre has dominated movie theaters everywhere with 15% of all 2024 movies falling into the horror genre. With movies like Longlegs, Smile 2 and Speak No Evil making it into the top 50 of 2024 Box Office Records, it seems that movie goers cannot get enough of these spine chilling stories. 

A24’s newest horror movie, Heretic, has already started to leave its mark as one of the most successful horror movies of this year, debuting in the top 20 of Box Office Performance for Horror Movies after its Nov. 8 release. 

Heretic is a psychological horror written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. It follows two sister missionaries, played by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, who are lured into the home of Mr. Reed, played by Hugh Grant, and forced to play a twisted game of cat and mouse with the goal of learning more about the truths and deceptions of religion. 

The movie starts with Sister Barnes (Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (East) on their way to the home of Mr. Reed who has requested to learn more about the Latter-day Saints church. Upon approaching the isolated home of Mr. Reed, the audience immediately begins to pick up on the feeling that something is not quite right. The longer the conversations go on with Mr. Reed, the more that uneasy feeling strengthens. 

Soon enough, the audience members are on the edge of their seats as Mr. Reed manipulates the young girls into participating in his treacherous games which he claims “may even make them want to die.” In a fashion similar to the Saw franchise, Mr. Reed seems to have thought of everything, making the only route of escape to play by his rules as he attempts to threaten and overwhelm the girls with the nature of their belief and fear of existentialism.

While the film mentions several different religions and deities it mainly focuses on Christianity, specifically The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon religion is known for being an extreme branch of Christianity with a controversial past. Mormons are often ridiculed and made fun of in the media, and for this reason I was skeptical on how Beck and Woods would portray the church in this movie. 

As someone who grew up in the LDS church, I was surprised with how accurate and respectful the church was portrayed. It was clear Beck and Woods spent time researching their content and knew what they were presenting was truthful and accurate. The cherry on top was that both Thatcher and East coincidentally grew up in the LDS church, which only added to the authenticity of everything. 

It’s a difficult task to create a thought-provoking story on religion without seeming like religious propaganda. Somehow, Beck and Woods were able to create a plot that raised a lot of really interesting questions on theology and the idea of belief while ending with the answer that both sides, disbelief and belief, have credible arguments. In other words, even if everything points towards disbelief there is still beauty and honor in belief and staying true to that faith.
Heretic heavily relies on the psychological aspect of horror. There’s little to no gore and minimal jump scares, it does not have a specific reason to be scary; it’s just undeniably creepy and unsettling. Which in my opinion, are some of the best horror movies. If you’re someone who enjoys mind twisting and bone-chilling stories I definitely recommend Heretic as a must see.