{"id":2369209,"date":"2024-11-14T23:22:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T04:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/heretic-and-the-horror-of-conformity-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-11-14T23:24:14","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T04:24:14","slug":"heretic-and-the-horror-of-conformity-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/heretic-and-the-horror-of-conformity-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Heretic and the horror of conformity &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fheretic-and-the-horror-of-conformity-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2369209&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/reviewed-furiosa-a-mad-max-saga\/\" title=\"Book Review: &quot;Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga\">article reviews<\/a> the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/9-horror-movie-cliches-that-need-to-die\/\" title=\"9 Horror Movie Cliches That Need to Die\">horror film<\/a> \u200c*Heretic*, directed by Scott Beck and Bryan \u200cWoods, \u2062which offers a \u2064fresh perspective on the genre by exploring themes of conformity and the\u200b dangers of disregarding personal boundaries for the sake of politeness. The story centers on Mr. Reed, played by Hugh Grant,\u2063 a reclusive Englishman who\u200b deceives two Mormon \u200cmissionaries, Sisters Barnes \u200cand Paxton, into entering his \u200dhome with nefarious intentions. While the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/washingtons-armor-new-biopic-explores-the-faith-of-a-young-george-washington\/\" title=\"\u2018Washington\u2019s Armor\u2019: New Biopic Explores The Faith Of A Young George Washington\">film touches<\/a> on the dark side of religion, it stands out for its chilling portrayal of how \u200csocietal expectations\u200b can \u2064lead \u2064individuals to \u200dcompromise their instincts and safety.<\/p>\n<p>As the missionaries become trapped in Reed&#8217;s labyrinthine home, the tension escalates\u200b into a psychological fight for survival, reflecting on the manipulation and control he exerts over them. The film is noted for\u2064 its effective writing and dialogue, combined with solid character development, making \u2064the audience invested in the women&#8217;s fate. Grant&#8217;s performance as an unexpected villain,\u200d alongside strong portrayals \u200cby Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East as the missionaries,\u2063 enhances the film\u2019s emotional depth. Not only does *Heretic* deliver\u2064 scares, but it \u2064also serves as a thought-provoking commentary on the cost of conformity \u2063and the importance of listening to\u2062 one\u2019s own judgments.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-sacff-txt\">Magazine &#8211; Life &amp; Arts <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Heretic and the horror of conformity<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1684948\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>If the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/horror\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">horror<\/a> film <em>Heretic <\/em>were just about the dark side of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/religion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">religion<\/a>, it would be smart and entertaining, though not entirely original. After all, the horror <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/movies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">genre<\/a> has dissected this subject on screen for decades. What makes <em>Heretic<\/em> different is its chilling depiction of what can happen when we disregard our own boundaries for fear of offending others.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (<em>A Quiet Place<\/em>), the film stars Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed, a reclusive Englishman who invites into his home two Mormon missionaries eager to spread the good word. Once inside, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton soon find out Mr. Reed is keener on kidnapping them than converting to their religion. What follows is a genuinely frightening ninety minutes of the women trying to escape Mr. Reed&rsquo;s labyrinthine dungeon and Mr. Reed trying to manipulate the women into surrendering to his eternal physical and psychological control. It&rsquo;s ultimately a thought-provoking meditation on how willingly we let others tell us how to live and what to believe.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">This image released by A24 shows, from left, Chloe East, Hugh Grant, and Sophie Thatcher in a scene from &ldquo;Heretic.&rdquo; (Kimberley French\/A24 via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It&rsquo;s raining when Barnes and Paxton arrive at Mr. Reed&rsquo;s front door. He tells them to come inside, but the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-red-wave-of-conservative-women-elected-to-congress\/\" title=\"The Red Wave of Conservative Women Elected to Congress\">young women<\/a> say no, explaining that their elders instructed them never to be alone in a room with a man. Mr. Reed says his wife is just inside, baking a blueberry pie. The women enter. After Mr. Reed offers to take their coats, he says, &ldquo;The walls and ceilings have metal in them, I hope you don&rsquo;t mind,&rdquo; which couldn&rsquo;t sound more ominous, but the ladies are too preoccupied with the coat-taking and making sure they&rsquo;ve responded graciously to his nice gesture to take notice. Mr. Reed goes off to collect his wife, taking their coats with him. Moments later, he returns with an excuse that she&rsquo;s not quite ready for visitors, but she&rsquo;ll be out shortly. The women, instead of insisting on her company, or else they&rsquo;ll have to leave, politely sit down. Mr. Reed has brought a tray of beverages with him, and it would be rude to turn them down.<\/p>\n<p>By this point, it&rsquo;s clear to the audience that something bad is going to happen. The film already exceeds others like it in the genre because we&rsquo;re not screaming at Barnes and Paxton, &ldquo;Get out of there, you idiots! What the hell are you thinking?&rdquo; like one often does when watching a horror film. Instead, the way they&rsquo;re behaving makes total sense to us since we know all too well what it&rsquo;s like to say yes when every fiber in our beings is telling us to say no. We don&rsquo;t want to come off as jerks. It would be super awkward if we left right now. What if we hurt his feelings?<\/p>\n<p><em>Heretic<\/em> succeeds in this way mostly because of good writing, in particular the clever dialogue, but also because of the actors&rsquo; performances. Grant, whose <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">decadeslong filmography consists primarily<\/a> of romantic comedies, such as <em>Notting Hill<\/em> and <em>Love, Actually<\/em>, is best known as a charmer. More recently, though, the wrinkled yet still handsome Grant has found a new, perhaps more affecting type as a grinning villain, with satisfying turns as what the Brits call a &ldquo;wrong &lsquo;un&rdquo; in <em>Paddington 2<\/em>, <em>The Gentlemen<\/em>, and <em>A Very English Scandal<\/em>. The real standouts, however, are Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, who play Barnes and Paxton. Beck and Woods made a smart choice with the script that a lot of horror writers tend to overlook: they reserved the first 20 or so minutes of the film for solid character development so that by the time the two women arrive at Mr. Reed&rsquo;s house, we care about what happens to them. What we learn about the characters during their private conversations about faith, love, and sex at the beginning of the film is subtly revisited throughout. Barnes is a star missionary in the church, but there&rsquo;s doubt lurking beneath the surface, and Paxton is heartbreakingly naive, which is what makes her story arc all the more thrilling once we realize she&rsquo;s more on to Mr. Reed than she&rsquo;s been letting on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most refreshing aspect of <em>Heretic<\/em>, which sets it apart from other religion-tinged horror movies, is that it doesn&rsquo;t all add up to a heavy-handed indictment of religion. In fact, it&rsquo;s very possible the filmmakers meant for it to communicate the opposite message, which is that there is value in choosing to believe in something bigger than us. The ending is ambiguous, so we can&rsquo;t know for sure what exactly they intended the moral of the story to be. However, whatever the intended artistic message, one takeaway is something more people in our political discourse could stand to consider: We could all afford to be a little less horrified at the prospect of offending crazy people who clearly mean us harm.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ben Appel is a writer living in New York City. His memoir,<\/em> Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic<em>, is forthcoming. Find him on Twitter @benappel and at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/benappelwrites.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><em>benappelwrites.com<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1684948\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1684948\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heretic&#8221; explores the dangers of conformity and fear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3530,"featured_media":2369210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AP24309630294625.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6672,20758,45045,4865,32076],"class_list":["post-2369209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-commentary","tag-conformity","tag-heretic","tag-horror","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AP24309630294625.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3530"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2369209"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2369213,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369209\/revisions\/2369213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2369210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2369209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2369209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2369209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}