Despite not typically gravitating towards scary movies, I enjoy really well-crafted movies with elements of tension and intrigue. It’s the jump scares and haunting visuals that I prefer to avoid.
I had heard great things about Heretic, and I heard Hugh Grant talk about it on the Smartless podcast recently. The premise is that two evangelists visit a man to share their religion, and the man challenges them in ways that really get under their skin.
As someone who has moved away from religion but is still open to spirituality and wonder, I was very curious about the conversations in the movie. Fortunately, there are quite a few such conversations in Heretic–almost 75% of the movie is an ongoing discussion between Grant and the evangelists about religion, spirituality, and belief. And Monopoly, of all things.
There are a few visually scary moments and a little violence, and I found I could get through those scenes by turning the volume way down and turning on subtitles. I don’t think those elements were necessary to the core tension of the movie, but they also didn’t detract from it.
I’m curious what you think about Heretic if you watch it (and if you have any recommendations of great scary movies that focus more on conversations than violence, gore, or jump scares).