“I feel like that was me”: How did Mormons react to the Hugh Grant horror Heretic? | Horror films

WWhat is the only true religion? That’s one of several key questions posed by Hugh Grant’s professorial villain Mr. Reed in the hit new film “Heretic,” which turns questions of faith into viciously entertaining psychological horror.

Mr. Reed’s targets are, at least outwardly, representatives of religious certainty: two missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who knock on his door in the hope of converting him. Sister Barnes (Yellowjackets’ Sophie Thatcher), a convert from Philadelphia, is quieter, droll and naturally skeptical. Sister Paxton (Chloe East), who grew up Mormon in Utah, is more stereotypically chirpy, polite and gullible. They both believe Mr. Reed – at least enough to enter and avoid a downpour – when he says that his wife is baking cakes in the next room and will be joining them shortly; Female missionaries are not allowed to be alone with a man unless another woman is present.

At first, Mr. Reed seems enthusiastic and curious about her faith; He even has a dog-eared copy of the Book of Mormon. But the conversation quickly turns dark as Mr. Reed devilishly pokes holes in Mormon doctrine and history, as well as most other organized religions, in an attempt to achieve psychological destabilization, control, fear and ultimately violence – Heretic is, after all, a horror film. Written and directed by A Quiet Place filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. The characters’ Mormonism serves as an introduction to a psychological religious thriller, poked and prodded by a madman with the demeanor of a mad religious scholar (and played with relish against type by a never-better Grant). Unsurprisingly, the film has drawn the ire of the Mormon Church, which said in an official statement that it “promotes violence against women based on their faith” and “undermines the contributions of volunteers” to “the safety and well-being of women.” of women”. our communities”. The church’s Deseret News described the film as “derogatory to what believers hold sacred.”

But for those who grew up in the Mormon Church, a modern American religion often fascinated by true crime series, influencer-driven reality shows or satirical outsider cartoons, the prospect of two sister missionaries caught in a dangerous situation is, and the metaphor of doubt as a terrible, hellish descent felt all too real. The portrayal of Mormon missionaries was “one of the best I’ve ever seen,” said Lexi Seals-Johnson, who grew up in the church and later founded the Lost & Found Club, a group for the female and genderqueer former religious community in Salt Lake City , where its own Heretic screening took place. “I know that many women who served missions, including my wife, couldn’t even see the trailer because the first scenes were so eerily similar.” While some of the wording “may have been a little off,” said Salt resident Nicole Merritts Lake City, “the naivety of her young age, her attempts to remain positive, and the mix of optimistic and jaded personalities were a fairly accurate characterization.”

For Whitney Rose, a star of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City — which, along with The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, serves as the main setting for Utah’s pop culture fascination — Heretic represented “exactly what I think missions are “. Rose, a member of a founding Mormon family who had left the church, hosted a joint screening of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” in Salt Lake with Whitney Leavitt, still faithful to Mr. Reed’s belief/disbelief binary plays and stimulates discussions to integrate doubts into one’s own religious practice. For Rose, Barnes and Paxton’s naivety, politeness and vulnerability were just right. “You’re sending 18-year-olds out into the world who were raised in a bubble and sanctuary of Mormonism,” she said. “You grow up thinking a certain way your whole life, and when you’re 18 you’re suddenly supposed to go out and figure out how to be safe and invite people into a religion.”

Rose is one of many formerly devout Mormons who reacted strongly to the film, from Reddit threads addressing questions of faith and missionary safety to TikToks expressing shock at the accuracy of small details — East’s Utah accent, the way Barnes portrays her status as a convert (“Such a typical Utah Mormon reaction,” Merritts said), the way Barnes and Paxton express their curiosity about sex in the opening scene and Barnes describes her own use of pornography as a lesson from God. “This is a missionary task,” said Caroline Brammer, who grew up Mormon and saw the film in Austin, Texas.

In one of his many lengthy speeches deconstructing religion, Mr. Reed quotes Gordon B. Hinckley, who served as president of the church from 1995 to 2008. “When I hear about Mormons in pop culture, they usually throw light on Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. who were early prophets and easy to criticize,” Brammer said. “But I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone talk about Gordon B. Hinckley, the prophet of my childhood.” The quote was so specific — “I don’t even know how you would search for it,” she said — that it prompted her to Google to see if the filmmakers were Mormons.

Beck and Woods are not; They first developed the idea for the film while working in Salt Lake and becoming friends with many Mormon and former Mormon families. For research purposes, they read not only the Book of Mormon, but also the Koran, various atheist thinkers, and Nick Bostrom’s simulation argument, among other things. They consulted numerous Mormon friends about the script and “did a consistent gut check: Are we approaching things with empathy?” Beck said. “Are we actually embodying what our knowledge of Mormon missionaries actually is? Are we making sure they don’t seem like caricatures? Are they authentic people? That’s always the goal when writing a screenplay, but it felt like it came with a little more responsibility.”

Aspects of the dialogue, such as the missionaries admitting to each other that some of the songs in the Book of Mormon were funny, came from real conversations. “We are taking a lot of the truth of what we knew from our friends and putting it in the mouths of these two missionaries because we feel that the portrayal of the LDS community, and missionaries in particular, is always caricatures,” he said Forest. It also helps that both East and Thatcher were raised Mormon, which made the peculiarities of their performances clear.

Brammer compared the film favorably to the Hulu series Under the Banner of Heaven, a prestige TV adaptation of a book about murders by violent Mormon fundamentalists, which “sounded very clunky,” as if “they never actually spoke to anyone who was Mormon.” “. Heretic focuses “more on the reality that missionaries are just 19 or 20 year old kids and not all of them are as righteous as you might imagine. Many of them question things and go on missions for different reasons.” , she said. And they are children – “they talk about stupid things like porn or sex”.

And in some cases, you walk away from the church; Several former Mormon viewers noted that the horror in the second half of the film (no spoilers!) was a metaphor for the confusing deconstruction of the belief system. “I appreciated that both subtle LDS nuances and a spectrum of beliefs were represented,” said Mae Warner of Salt Lake City. “In my own life, deconstructing religious beliefs felt hurtful and not entirely consensual. Heretic captures this experience both explicitly and metaphorically in such a poignant way.”

The film is “a pretty provocative portrayal of faith in general,” Seals-Johnson said. “It is always shocking when details about the Mormon Church are discussed in the mainstream media because so much of it is kept under wraps.”

Although aspects of the film for Rose “reinforced my faith in knowing that we are responsible for how we treat one another,” the psychological side was also reflected in her leaving the church. “I feel like that was me,” she said. “Of course on a very different journey, but the mental turmoil and the anguish and the struggle that I went through in my twenties, when I left the church, when I had my crisis of faith – that’s what it feels like. It feels really traumatic.”

Rose and the others I spoke with didn’t expect actual believers to see the film, given the church’s public disapproval. “It probably would be viewed as not the right thing to do,” she said. But she wishes everyone, regardless of faith, would see it “for their own beliefs and just to better understand why people leave.”