The Heretics is a 2018 horror film about a young woman who, after she’s kidnapped, begins to undergo a strange transformation.
I tend to watch horror movies with a more introspective eye, searching the violence for a connective theme, a link to some larger metaphorical message that the filmmakers are trying to make. It doesn’t always pay off of course because oftentimes a killer on the loose hacking up young women is just a killer on the loose hacking up young women. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to Chad Archibald‘s The Heretics, missing it on release last year but able to catch it before its upcoming VOD debut, and while I won’t say I was disappointed, it doesn’t have much to say, clinging to some old genre standards that leave this lacking.
Gloria (Nina Kiri) wakes from a nightmare, one of many about a horrific incident five years before where she was kidnapped by a strange cult that tied her to a table in the woods and then slit their own throats, soaking her in their sacrificial blood. She walked away from that terror and has spent the years since trying to rebuild her life, living with her mother (Nina Richmond) and meeting a girlfriend named Joan (Jorja Cadence) at group therapy, herself a victim of domestic abuse. However, one night, Gloria is kidnapped again by a doubting member of the cult, Thomas (Ry Barrett), who drags her to his cabin and locks her up, telling her that he is trying to save her life, that in the morning, something evil is coming.
A battered girl chained up in service to the plot is nothing new in this genre, and granted, I like the twist Archibald (who co-wrote the screenplay with Jayme Laforest) gives the setup, though wonder at the execution of Thomas’ plan, attacking and tossing her in a camper van the first of many question you’ll have the more he explains his story. Either way, things have to move forward. The rest of the film mostly leaves Gloria bound to the wall as she and Thomas sort out the details of what is slowly happening to her, and something definitely is. Meanwhile, Joan goes on a literal psychotic rampage in a desperate search for her girlfriend, and reveals a secret of her own, though you’ll no doubt catch what that is well before it comes.
As a supernatural thriller, The Heretics follows the dotted lines without much innovation, relying on jump scares and conventions that have long paved the way before, though that’s not really the problem. It’s mostly that it doesn’t go anywhere, losing momentum the more it heads for its end, never really challenging its audience beyond its obvious frights.
That said, Archibald deserves credit for generating much out of little, his budget and setting confining but given surprising breadth and I won’t deny a few moments clicked, even if they are familiar. The cast is a scattering of ify ups and downs, with Cadence running amok and Kiri the most convincing. Any fan of horror will see exactly where this is going and still find something to keep them entertained, with its hyperbolic score and demonic imagery. However, most will find this a passable rental without much to give it any significance.