Hugh Grant isn’t exactly new to villainy. Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones’s Diary? Secret villain. Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2? Adorable villain. Jonathan Fraser in The Undoing? Villain who could use a kick in the crotch.
Then there’s A24’s upcoming Heretic, in which Hugh Grant isn’t messing around anymore with a character who is pretending not to be a bad guy. Instead, he’s all up in his villainy by terrorizing Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets, The Boogeyman) and Chloe East (Generation, Popular Theory), who portray Mormon missionaries who chose the wrong door when Grant’s Mr. Reed invites them in and doesn’t let them leave through the front entrance. Instead, they must pass through his house of horrors if they wish to survive. It’s not looking good for them, sad to say.
Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (The Boogeyman, A Quiet Place), this horror-fest arrives with a simple synopsis: “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.”
Heretic arrives in theaters on Nov. 8 (before Harris Dickinson and Nicole Kidman’s A24 erotic thriller, Babygirl) because spooky season can last forever.