Hollywood Sucks at Portraying Religion. ”Heretic” Is the Rare Film That Gets It Right.
A24's newest horror film embraces the nuances of religious belief in today's America.
If there’s one thing Hollywood does not know how to talk about with any level of nuance, it’s religion.
Yes, we get endless movies satirizing or mocking religious faith, which are all good and fun but lack an appreciation for why belief is important for people. You can only watch some smug Bill Maher-type make the same meme arguments so many times.
We also have a niche market of “faith-based films,” which are overly sincere and market themselves to the most devout viewers only. They tend to have very low production values and anyone but the most committed to their religion finds them cringeworthy.
But occasionally, a movie comes along that actually takes religion seriously; the plots of these films are found in the shades of gray that can be found somewhere in between the crossfire of Bible-thumping believers and sardonic skeptics.
I would put movies like M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs or Paul Schrader’s First Reformed in that category. These flicks featured characters wrestling with their religious beliefs and how to apply them to a world in chaos (whether that chaos be an alien invasion or environmental devastation).
Heretic, the latest A24 flick by writer-director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and starring Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, and Chloe East, is one of those films.
Thatcher and East play the Mormon Sisters Barnes and Paxton, respectively. They spend their days as missionaries, traversing communities trying to proselytize new adherents into the faith. Anyone familiar with Mormonism knows that this is a rite-of-passage for many young Mormons and Barnes and Paxton are both dedicated to doing their duties.
They arrive at the home of Mr. Reed (played by Grant). Reed initially introduces himself as someone who is very interested in hearing all about the Book of Mormon. But after the girls enter his home and his lies start to unravel, it’s clear that something much more sinister is afoot.
Reed ends up being one of cinema’s first New Atheist antagonists, a man intent on tormenting the Mormon missionaries trapped in his home with Reddit-tier arguments designed to get them to reject their religious beliefs.
But without spoiling anything, what makes the movie work is not that it force feeds you either Mormonism or atheism. Instead, the matter of faith is taken more seriously.
Paxton and Barnes turn out not to be the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed zealots who he expected; they’ve thought deeply about their own beliefs and exist far outside the atheist vs. fundamentalist binary Reed expects them to reside in.
That’s why I’d recommend the flick for anyone who’s looking for a nuanced depiction of religion and philosophy. And it has real lessons for the industry.
It’s time for Hollywood to admit that the days where low-brow mockery of Christianity make for good cinema are long over.
Many religious people today — like Paxton and Barnes — aren’t unquestioning zealots at all. They’ve interrogated their religious beliefs, often wrestling with doubt and skepticism. They’re not bowing their head in prayer thinking that their words are magical spells, they’re doing it out of more out of hope than conviction.
It’s not surprising that many Republicans believe that Hollywood is biased against Christians when they can’t see a realistic and humane depiction of religious people in media.
And it’s not just Christians. Faith is often portrayed across television and the movies as oppressive or juvenile; it’s like the writers can’t imagine someone who goes to temple or synagogue regularly and finds meaning in it.
We all just lived through a crazy election season that resulted in yet another Trump presidency. When I think about how poorly religion is often portrayed in mass media, I recall something that New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet said after Trump’s win in 2016.
“We have a fabulous religion writer, but she's all alone,” he admitted. “We don't get religion. We don't get the role of religion in people's lives. And I think we can do much, much better.”
In the eight years since, not enough people in the media listened to Baquet’s words. It’s time to start.
Hollywood in fact appropriates a lot from the Bible. They just couch it as something else, repackage it as something non-Christian. They can't make a movie giving Christians due respect as they would anyone else, but they're happy to rake in millions appropriating from the source.
Thanks for the recommendation! Will give Heretic a whirl.