Last June, we learned that Hugh Grant – whose credits include Notting Hill, Love Actually, Wonka, and Unfrosted – had signed on to star in the A24 horror film Heretic, which is coming our way from the writing and directing duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Last month, A24 revealed their plan to give Heretic a wide theatrical release on November 15th. Just yesterday, they unveiled a poster for the film, and with that came the promise that a trailer for Heretic would be arriving online today. True to their word, A24 has just released that trailer, and you can check it out in the embed above.
Details have been scarce up to this point, but with the trailer we have also received an official plot 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.
Now we have confirmation that Grant, who has previously said that he finds villain roles to be “more fun” to play, will be playing the villain in this scenario. It should be very interesting to watch him take on a diabolic role in a horror movie, and the trailer gives a nice preview of the performance he has delivered. 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.
What did you think of the trailer for Heretic? Will you be catching this A24 horror film on the big screen in November? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
