Many cinematic heartthrobs have had to contend with aging out of romantic leading roles, but few have faced up to the genre they’ve long been synonymous with dying out entirely. This is the case for Hugh Grant, inarguably the definitive male rom-com star of the past 30 years, and the way he’s managed to adapt his screen persona to change with the times will likely serve as a template for decades to come. Rather than simply being cast against type as a villain (something which had mixed success in 2012’s Cloud Atlas), the English actor has played to his comedic antagonist strengths in films like Paddington 2 (2017) and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), with both films re-contextualizing his charm and wit as disarming weapons. 

The 2024 psychological horror film Heretic, directed by the celebrated high-concept screenwriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place), arrives at the ideal point in Grant’s career renaissance as a deliberate weaponization of his current screen persona. As the mysterious figure Mr. Reed, the Hollywood star exudes the natural charisma and self-deprecating wit that he’s managed to carry over into his bad guy roles, forcing audiences to put their guards down even as they’re aware they’ve willingly walked into a horror movie. Heretic is at its best when forcing Grant to walk the line between jet-black comedy and outright evil, functioning as both a a stripped-down, bloody thriller and a referendum on just how much we’ll let our beloved stars get away with onscreen.

Heretic Review: Related — Know the Cast: ‘A Quiet Place’

Heretic’s marketing campaign suggests that the movie is strictly about a particularly dark crisis of faith, as two Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes and Chloe East as Sister Paxton) are confronted with a man eager to tear apart their belief system with facts and logic. Beck and Woods’ screenplay is entertaining precisely because the film understands that it’s a campy popcorn movie, and that any in-depth discussions about theology would only derail the mounting tension. Despite Heretic’s subject matter, it’s a propulsive thrill ride to be felt and not thought, and that’s why Grant’s monologues — comparing religion to everything from Monopoly and Star Wars to Radiohead’s Creep — don’t offer any insight in terms of religion being a scam. These shallow character arguments function as a feature and not a bug, and although several beloved horror movies have offered genuine insight into the topic of faith in the past, it quickly becomes clear in Heretic that having a figure like Mr. Reed — who offers genuine food for thought — would be to the detriment of the character.

Heretic Review: Related — Soundtracks of Cinema: ‘Friday the 13th’

Despite Mr. Reed’s outward facing appearance as a quaint, middle-aged English man, this is a character who has long abandoned sanity, seemingly having spent the best part of the prior decade transforming his home into an escape room. He’s essentially the Jigsaw of atheism, and much like the Saw movies, any morals Mr. Reed intends his victims to learn are largely incoherent. And unlike many of the Saw movies, as fun as they are, Beck and Woods are self-aware about the baffling nature of their villain’s moral code.

Heretic Review: Related — Know the Cast: ‘Hysteria!’

If Heretic could be interpreted as an overtly religious film, it’s less to do with the crisis of faith Grant’s character aims to impose on the two heroines and more to do with his abandonment of religion and a moral descent into pure madness. I don’t for a second believe that Beck and Woods’ film has any real religious worldview, even if that’s how it will be scrutinized. After all, Heretic arrives  just weeks after some people hailed Terrifier 3 — a horror film which opens with two young children being bludgeoned to death — as a covertly Christian film. But any food for thought on the topic of faith is instantly proven to be shallow, and that’s exactly how it should be. Much like Mr. Reed’s carefully detailed and overly evidenced arguments, Beck and Woods’ film is much more vapid than it presents itself, and I mean that as a compliment. Heretic is the thinking man’s dumb horror movie of the year.

Alistair Ryder (@YesitsAlistair) is a film and TV critic based in Manchester, England. By day, he interviews the great and the good of the film world for Zavvi, and by night, he criticizes their work as a regular reviewer at outlets including The Film Stage and Looper.

Heretic Review: Related — Soundtracks of Cinema: ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’