Heretic

The first act is like 70 minutes of 110 minutes. The second act is a lady eating pie. The third act is predictable. The film's antagonist espouses its point of view(?). The film's protagonist is a religious caricature of the opposing(?) point(s) of view. Edited by a film student (or A24 editor). From the people who wrote A Quiet Place.

Wonderfully eerie, and, especially, silent first hour. It's like a morality play from the first shot and could come without the unoriginal tropes that surface as the "monster". The best parts are Grant reciting lectures about theology and music history to a stunned, captive audience. And then the candle burns low, and we notice that it was just intellectually flavored.

Fancies itself as more of a philosophical thinker than it really is. The writing and execution really is not clean enough to be considered truly exceptional. Another one on the pile of recent stabs at elevated horror aesthetics without a serious grip on its message nor a well-orchestrated follow through.

Part Barbarian and part Speak no Evil.

The phrase “less violent Saw games in between thought-provoking statements on religion and faith-vs-skepticism” probably sounds like the most pretentious thing ever for horror. (Hey, can you guess this is from A24?) But honestly it never comes across that way. In the context of the movie, it works. And it all comes out to an interesting and tense horror experience.

Grant's villain is interesting because he is really just layering his lunacy with theological talk, not unlike Jigsaw "helping" people even though he's torturing people. Great performances all around. As noted, trailer is misleading for what this is, but if you take it without the marketing, it's a pretty tense horror-tinged drama (it's not really scary) that delves into competing views on religion. Is it the deepest? Well no, you aren't in church, but it does well.

I started getting worried when it was taking so long for the movie to go anywhere, when they were in that room for seemingly forever while Hugh Grant rambled. I got even more worried when they went in the basement, and it wasn't a labyrinth at all like the trailers really seemed to imply. But I knew that absolutely nothing was going to redeem it after the first girl dies, and the other girl is "solving" the mystery. Doesn't say anything, but thinks it's very clever.

This was a fun evening at the cinema, but it's also a fuckload of words without much new to say

If this movie ever arrived at making its point I must have missed it

A religious philosophy course wrapped in a horror movie. Hugh Grant was chewing up dialogue like it was nobody's business. Great performances all around by the cast

Wow! I was not expecting to love this nearly as much as I thought I would. Really suspenseful and keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. The three lead performances are really great and Hugh Grant just steals the show here with how dialogue-heavy and reference heavy the movie is. If I have maybe one criticism, maybe the end could be a bit better, but the rest of the movie was so great it wasn’t enough to dock it too much.

Personally for me, the first half of the movie felt really intense, captivating and tight in writing but just fizzled away towards the end. The main twist for antagonist's narrative, the deus ex machina save, it all seemed contrived, and the symbolism at the end was just unnecessary.

Excellent

filmekimi24'

2024'de #FilmEkimi nde #IzlediğimFilmler ; 231. Heretic Yılın en iyilerinden. Din, inanç ve kontrol sistemini bu kadar zekice irdeleyen uzun zamandır bir film izlememiştim. Filmin korku elementleri klişelerden değil, diyaloglardan geliyor. Filmin kalbinde de sevdiğim şarkı. 9/10