SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Next week, the movie “Heretic” will be hitting Utah theaters — a horror tale where two missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints knock on the wrong door and are forced in a creepy sequence of challenges to test their faith.
Ahead of the film’s release, ABC4’s Film Critic and Celebrity Interviewer Patrick Beatty met with director Bryan Woods and Scott Beck. The movie is rated R due to its violence, which Woods said was necessary to deliver the film’s story.
“The movie had to go to certain dark places, hence the violence in the film. But I will say I am proud that it’s true to Mormon culture,” Woods said. “There is not a single swear word in this movie…It’s just the violence that we felt was important to the film and the story we’re telling.”
The directors shared that they’re surrounded by friends and extended family members who are members of the church, which helped them get an inside view of the religion.
“One of the reoccurring things that we found so fascinating about Mormon missionaries is you’re sent off into a new environment,” Beck said. “You’re paired up with somebody that you don’t know very well, and that navigation of, we have a shared mission, and yet we also need to understand who each other is. That mash felt like it was kind of the perfect entry point into a discussion about religion and religion from a different standpoint of each person’s relationship to it.”
Beck spoke to how each of the sister missionaries are at different points of their religious journey in the film, which explores how they’re rectifying it — such as one of them who recently lost her father.
“We felt that was a unique portrayal of what we could do with the faith as well as the story we’re telling,” he said.
Woods added that the actresses who portray the missionaries, Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher, were raised in the faith, which gave them true life experience to draw on to make the film as personal as possible.
“Our hope was certainly not to be like — I think certain characterizations that are sensationalized. For us, it was always tapping into the truth that we know through our community of Mormon friends, and making sure that it felt authentic to their experience first and foremost. I think there’s other depictions of Mormonism that come across as naive or sheltered and obviously, in our experience, that’s not the case and we wanted to make sure it felt as true to life to what we know,” Beck said.
You can check out the full review of “Heretic” under ABC4.com’s “See It or Skip It” tab. “Heretic” will be in theaters Nov. 8.
Note: See It or Skip It is proudly owned and produced by Patrick Beatty. ABC4 is a broadcast partner, but the show, its content, and opinions are independently created.
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