Heretic Reveals Real People That Inspired Hugh Grant’s Sinister Character

The new horror movie Heretic features Hugh Grant as “Mr. Reed,” a reclusive man living in a house that holds some dark secrets. When two Mormon girls acting as missionaries show up on Reed’s doorstep, he lures them into a dark test of their faith that could also be a test of life and death. The film’s trailers have gotten audiences hooked on directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ (writers of A Quiet Place) atmospheric dread, and the tease of a deliciously unhinged performance from Hugh Grant.

ComicBook got the chance to sit down and talk with Woods and Beck about Heretic; during that conversation, the director duo revealed some of the real-life figures that influenced the character of Mr. Reed:

“Yeah I mean definitely from a cult standpoint we were thinking about Jim Jones with the Jonestown Massacre; Keith Raniere and the NXIVM cult,” Beck explained. “All of these people who are fairly charismatic and you enter into this organization at first thinking it’s going to better your life, and then it perverts itself over the course of time.”

“Yeah, also he was inspired by great atheist thinkers,” Woods added. “Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins: he’s an amalgamation of 30 different real-life people and then you bring Hugh into the conversation and Hugh is such a brilliant mind. He had a lot of ideas as well about who the character connects to. It was so fun to work with him.”

Heretic Cast, Crew & Story Info

Per the official synopsis for Heretic: “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 is written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, and is being released by A24 Films. It stars Hugh Grant, Topher Grace (Spider-Man 3), Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets), and Chloe East (The Fabelmans). Heretic will be in theaters on Friday.