The A24 horror film Heretic, which is coming our way from the writing and directing duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, is set to receive a wide theatrical release on November 8th, with multi-sensory advance screenings set to be held at Alamo Drafthouse theatres on October 30th. Hugh Grant – whose credits include Notting Hill, Love Actually, Wonka, and Unfrosted – stars in Heretic, which has the following 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 (Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. During an interview with GamesRadar+, Grant revealed that he has written a full biography for his villainous character, as that’s part of his acting process now.
Grant said, “This is what I do now, I go through the script with an extraordinary tooth comb, over and over again. Why does he do that? Why does he say that? The answer to each question suggests something about him and his past, and that mushrooms into a full biography, which I have all typed out on my computer, about his relationship with his parents, his siblings, what happened at school, what traumatic things have happened, and what hurt him in this particular case to become the monster that he is now. I think it’s very important that the audience can kind of smell the damage inside him. Otherwise, there’s a danger that you just become a pantomime villain, but if they can smell there’s a suffering person in there, then they’re more interesting.“
As for why audiences love to watch villains in action, here’s Grant’s theory: “If you go to any pantomime, who does the audience love? They love the baddie and we are drawn to baddies. My personal theory is that it’s because we are bad and it’s a recognition of our true nature – selfish, evil, cruel, vicious.“
Grant has previously said that he finds villain roles to be “more fun” to play. It should be very interesting to watch him take on a diabolic role in a horror movie. He is joined in the cast of Heretic by Chloe East (The Fabelmans) and Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) as the missionaries. Grant hasn’t done much horror in his career, but he did have a role in Ken Russell’s Bram Stoker-inspired supernatural horror comedy The Lair of the White Worm back in 1988.
Beck and Woods’ previous credits include A Quiet Place (they wrote the original script), Haunt (as writers/directors), Nightlight (writers/directors), Spread (writers/directors), the “Adam Driver vs. dinosaurs” movie 65 (writers/directors), and an episode of 50 States of Fright (writers/directors). They also (alongside Mark Heyman) received writing credits on the Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman – which happened to star Sophie Thatcher, who turned in a great performance in a movie I thought was just okay overall.
JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the opportunity to watch Heretic earlier this month and gave the movie a 7/10 review that can be read at THIS LINK. He said Grant “radiates fiendishly clever intelligence, and he’s given a sadistic streak I didn’t see coming, which feels bold for a mainstream horror flick.”
Are you looking forward to Heretic? What do you think of Hugh Grant’s approach to building a biography for his character? Let us know by leaving a comment below.