Summary
Hereticis one of the biggesthorrorhits of 2024, with Hugh Grant’s stunning performance garnering acclaim from fans and critics alike.The movie was directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, and the pair recently opened up about the possibility of sequels in the future.Heretic tells the story of a peculiar man called Mr Reed (Grant), who invites two young Mormon women to discuss their faith with him at his creepy mansion, before things take a sinister turn.
Hereticwas released in October 2024 and has become one of A24’s highest grossing movies ever. This has naturally led to the discussion of sequels, and the directors were more than happy to share their thoughts on the matter, butany plans for future entries in the potential franchise might not be what fans expect.
Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East and Topher Grace
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
Directed By
Spoiler alert:Hugh Grant’s Mr Reedgets battered to death atthe end ofHeretic, and this would obviously put an end to the chances of the actor returning in aHereticsequel, unless the character’s supernatural trickery was actually real. However,Scott Beck and Bryan Woods aren’t closed off to the expansion of theHereticuniverse, but it wouldn’t be in the typical sequel tradition.Beck and Woods elaborated on their potential plans in a recentinterview with Variety:
There are some things on deck that we’ve talked about specifically that feel like spiritual sequels. They delve into religion, cults or other hot-button items that we want to see on the screen that go to uncomfortable places. What was exciting about ‘Heretic’ was we’ve seen many movies that might be religious in nature, but aren’t necessarily providing a foundation of a conversation that you can walk away with. If you want to keep engaging with it by having conversations about the ideas with your friends, family or loved ones, you can have that there. We find ourselves in such a divisive, polarizing world at times that there’s so much discourse we’re still very captivated by. We want to feed that into a couple of the upcoming projects.
This idea of exploring different angles of the conversation about religion via social commentary in ‘spiritual sequels’ is a great idea.They are right, a lot ofhorror moviesappear to have religious connotations on the surface, but they don’t actually delve into the nitty-gritty of the controversial subject. This is whereHereticstood out, as it actually challenged the notion of religion head on. The particular story and the characters inHereticmight be completed to a satisfactory point, but the conversation surrounding religion still needs exploring further and could form the basis of a series of well-thought-out sequels.
What Did The Heretic Directors Say About Working With Hugh Grant?
Hugh Grant has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts in the last few years after ditching romantic comedies in favor of much edgier roles, in a similar way to howMatthew McConaugheyreinvented his career a few years back. His latest role asMr Reed inHereticis probably Grant’s darkest role yet, and Scott Beck and Bryan Woods were very pleased with the performance they got from him in the horror movie.Woods told Variety:
We’ve been blown away by Hugh. Of course, we grew up with all of his incredible romantic comedies. But ten years ago, when we saw ‘Cloud Atlas,’ we saw him in the credits and realized he played all these different parts. It was so exciting to see an artist challenge themselves. Then he spent the next ten years, for our money, becoming one of the greatest character actors in cinema.
It was a stroke of genius to cast Hugh Grant as the enigmatic villain inHeretic, and the directors are clearly on board with the ‘Hugh-naissance’.Cloud Atlasshowcased Grant’s ability to shift between different personas, making him perfect for Mr Reed. However, Grant has been riding on the crest of a wave for some time now, with roles that actually challenge him as an actor. Fans were used to seeing him as the dopey romantic lead in a string of hit comedies, but there was a sense that he wasn’t quite challenging himself as much as he could. The directors ofHereticreally did get the best out of their leading man, and in many ways, it’s a shame Mr Reed was killed off, as there was so much more to explore with his character. Having said that, ‘spiritual sequels’ do seem to be the best way to go with the Heretic-verse.
