In new horror movie Heretic, the terror begins with the promise of a home-cooked blueberry pie. The pie is just one of the ways in which the villain of the piece, Mr. Reed (a superbly sinister Hugh Grant) lures two Mormon missionaries into his spiraling nightmare of a home.
What I will say is that one of Heretic's greatest successes is the way it permits its central characters to do spiritual battle. Mr. Reed is a theologian who desperately wants to take two sheltered missionaries down a peg or two.
The film also consistently uses the good manners and polite vernaculars of its three central characters to fray nerves and raise tension. It is a masterful and refreshing way to reinvent the horror house trope.
Of course, the greatest (and darkest) surprises of all come once everyone reaches the lowest point of the house. The camera's brief nod to an illustration of Dante's Inferno is no accident.
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