It’s truly delightful how thoroughly Hugh Grant has sunk into his character-actor status in the last decade or so – he was having a miserable time as a leading man in the ‘00s (and we don’t mean that he turned in bad performances, just that he wasn’t having fun with his parts anymore), and stopped giving a fuck about what people thought of him or what top-billed leading man status meant. He made the active decision to be interesting: Every time he shows up in a Guy Ritchie movie or some esoteric and absurd feature from out of nowhere summoned from the dredges of the BFI’s National Lottery awards, we’re just endlessly endeared by what he comes up with.
Take, for instance, Heretic. No, not the second Exorcist movie – this is about a creepy neighbor (played by Grant) tormenting two teens who happen to be unlucky enough to live near the guy. It’s directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who you probably know best as the writers of A Quiet Place (hence why the trailer is coming out this week) and as the writer-directors of Adam Driver vs. Dinosaurs movie 65, which we had a good time with last year. And A24 dropped the aforementioned trailer earlier on Tuesday, and boy, it looks like Hugh Grant’s having a great time here.
Peep it:
Here’s a synopsis:
“Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse.”
Heretic hits theaters on November 15. It’s always weird when they’re just a little late with Halloween movies, isn’t it? You’d think they’d be all over this to try and grab the Five Nights at Freddy’s crowd, even if it’s not necessarily a full-on adaptation of the Hello Neighbor games.