In A24's Heretic, two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse.
The movie also stars Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East and was written & directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.
The final trailer Heretic has been released (via FearHQ.com) and it both ups the ante and drives home the fact Grant is taking on one of his most twisted, terrifying roles to date. Tormenting the two girls who enter his home, he tasks them with making a fateful decision before pursuing them through the underbelly of his house.
There's a lot which isn't shown here and something tells us this one will deliver some big twists and turns. The sneak peek also includes plenty of praise from critics, no great surprise when it sits at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
"Hugh is certainly having a renaissance and we’re so grateful to be a part of that journey," Beck recently told Screen Daily. "When we saw Four Weddings And A Funeral, we were too young to understand the idiosyncratic nature of that movie and Richard Curtis’s work, but there was this standout performance by Hugh Grant."
"Heretic is a conversation about what the one true religion may or may not be," adds Woods. "Our references were Inherit The Wind, Stanley Kramer’s classic starring Spencer Tracy, and Robert Zemeckis’s Contact. We wanted to have an actual conversation about religion, but set it in a terrifying context."
Before A24 got involved, the filmmakers "sent the script to our heroes" and, after veteran producer Stacey Sher (Pulp Fiction) boarded the project, it was time to approach Grant.
"He did take a little courting," Woods recalled. "A lot of A-listers were raising their hand to play this role." However, they "just felt in our bones that it was the right choice," with Becks noting, "He’s the truest collaborator in the sense that he did his homework ahead of time and therefore the decisions on set were very laser-focused."
Adds Woods: "He’s extremely intelligent and brought a lot of interesting thoughts on religion."
Heretic arrives in theaters on November 8.