A24’s new horror film Heretic was bound to spark big reactions in Utah. The film follows two missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who get caught in both the rhetorical and literal traps set by Mr. Reed, played by Hugh Grant. Having never gone on a Mormon mission myself, I jumped at the chance to attend a screening with a group of people who had.
The premise of the A24 film is straightforward, even if the way out of Mr. Reed’s clutches is not. Mr. Reed lures Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, played by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, respectively, into his home under false pretenses. He gives them the impression that he’s interested in learning more about The Book of Mormon and tells them his wife is in the other room. He does the latter to satisfy a real-life LDS mission rule that forbids missionaries from being alone in the home with someone of a different gender.
Once the missionaries begin their first discussion with Reed, it becomes obvious that he has done his research on the Mormon faith and the church’s history. He asks increasingly more challenging questions and confronts the Barnes and Paxton about polygamy and church founder Joseph Smith’s seducing his teenaged, live-in servant Fanny Alger. But, these missionaries are prepared and quick-witted enough to mount a defense of their beliefs and confront Reed’s thin philosophies. The stakes and rhetoric only heighten from there as Barnes and Paxton realize the extent of Reed’s trap. They become, in a very literal sense, a “captive audience” for Reed’s anti-religion tirades and board game-related object lessons.
The film challenges the ideas of both believers and nonbelievers and delivers on this tension, ramping up to a bloody climax and thrilling conclusion (that I will not spoil here).
The moment the lights rose in the theater after our screening, the group of former missionaries exploded with stories from their own missions, brought to mind by the events of the film or lines delivered by Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton.
Heretic converts critics and audiences
The reactions from Utahns, members of the LDS Church, former missionaries, and Ex-mormons alike all seem to be divided on the representation of Mormon missionaries and religious belief in the film, but the overall critical response is positive across the board. Heretic has an almost perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates critical reviews of films and gives them a score based on the percentage of favorable reviews.
Heretic also surpassed a box office milestone this week. The horror/thriller film hit $20 million domestically and $25 million worldwide in its second weekend, and it’s on track to become the 10th highest grossing horror film of the year, even out-earning some more commercial, big-budget movies. A24’s Heretic made back its reported budget of $10 million in its first weekend.
Suffice to say, nationally, Heretic is converting both audiences and critics. On the local level, we can’t seem to stop talking about it—or talking around it—whether you loved it or hated it or even saw it at all.
Responses to Heretic
Commenting on the film, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints released a statement well before Heretic even opened in theaters (regardless, the Brethren probably would not see the R-rated Heretic anyway).
The statement reads in part, “A number of recent productions depict lifestyles and practices blatantly inconsistent with the teachings of the Church. Others irresponsibly mischaracterize the safety and conduct of our volunteer missionaries. We understand the fascination some in the media have with the Church, but regret that portrayals often rely on sensationalism and inaccuracies that do not fairly and fully reflect the lives of our Church members or the sacred beliefs that they hold dear.”
From the reactions of people who have been Mormon missionaries (at least in my screening), and the missionary handbook, there are indeed rules to help keep missionaries safe, and they did not appear to be egregiously misrepresented in Heretic. Missionaries, some as young as 18 years old, are instructed to rely on their faith, intuition, and promptings from the holy spirit to know when a situation is dangerous. Their handbook tells them to pray to god daily for protection. Both Barnes and Paxton demonstrate reliance on their faith and prayer in the film.
Thatcher and East, both actors who were raised in Mormonism, have stood by their work in the film. East describes her character, Sister Paxton, as “more than what you see on surface level with her bubbly outward personality…but as the movie progresses, you see she is much smarter than meets the eye. She thinks deeply about religion and trusts her own faith.”
The film’s creators Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place) said they wanted to create characters in the mold of the missionaries they met when they were researching the script. “Sometimes you could perceive this almost surface-level naiveté in the missionaries we spent time with,” says Woods. “But we found them to be super smart and cool and even badass in their views on religion, society and culture. We wove that into our characters, because what we wanted most from Paxton and Barnes was for
Reed to underestimate them.”
For a more comprehensive breakdown on how well Thatcher and East and the film’s writers portray missionaries, author and former missionary Alyssa Grenfell provides one perspective. For another perspective, horror author, church member, and return missionary Michaelbrent Collings writes about what the film gets wrong based on his experience. The LDS Church also released a summary of what it does to keep safe its thousands of young, volunteer missionaries, whose church still instructs them to go door-to-door and enter the homes of prospective converts.
Another line of criticism directed at Heretic is its choice to show religious characters as victims of violence at all. (A bit ironic, considering evangelical Americans cast themselves frequently as the victims of a secular, godless, and heretical society.)
A follow-up statement from an LDS Church representative, reported by the St. George News, reads in part, “Any narrative that promotes violence against women because of their faith…runs counter to the safety and wellbeing of our communities.”
It feels a bit unfair to accuse Heretic of promoting violence given that, in Heretic, the missionaries are the heroes of the film and Reed is the villain. Should not the agnostic folks be offended for being portrayed as a tedious, arrogant, and violent maniac? (And by that logic, would not all artwork of Christ at the crucifixion be seen as promotion for crucifying religious leaders? Would not the stories and illustrations depicting the harm done against early Mormon migrants be considered an endorsement of violence against Mormons?)
If I may posit another theory as to why Heretic has made some members of the faith feel upset? I believe it is difficult to not have control over how you are perceived by others and it is hard to be confronted with that perception, even if there is truth in it.
I also believe it is terrifying to be confronted with the possibility that, no matter how strictly you follow doctrine, how earnestly you pray, or how generously you volunteer—you could still get hurt.
Or, as Heretic co-writer-director Bryan Woods put it, “All horror movies in one way or another are about death—it’s the thing we fear most in life, and we use religion to try and make sense of what happens when we die so we can feel safe. But when we delve too deep into the subject, sometimes we’re left feeling less safe.”
