Starring: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East and Elle Young
Distributor: Roadshow Films, A24
Runtime: 110 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2024
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This thriller tells the story of two Mormon missionaries, who visit an Englishman living by himself in the woods of US.
Two young female missionaries, who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Sister Barnes (Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (East) – call at an isolated dwelling in the American woods. They are drawn into an intense conversation with Mr Reed (Grant), the person who lives there. The film plays provocatively with all religious belief. The two women find themselves drawn into a game of survival in Reed’s mysterious house. They visit him eager to talk about their Mormon beliefs, and they speedily become victims of his pathological manipulations.
Grant is well known for his mannerisms of warmth and good cheer. Such are evident in the film, but any semblance of friendship on his part is completely deceptive. The two women politely inform Reed they cannot be alone without another woman present, whereupon he offers to call his wife who he says is baking a pie in the next room, but she doesn’t exist at all. He then proceeds to discuss religion at a personal and theological level with the two women, and challenges them by communicating his conviction that their religion, and that of others as well, is built around the desire to ‘control’ its believers. Every religion, he says, is an exercise in ‘control’, and he pressures the women to ‘prove’ their faith.
Consistent with all religious belief, the film addresses the influence of a higher power over human behaviour, and asks what will happen when humans are no longer able to believe in such a power. Reed confronts the women, telling them they are forced by their beliefs to accept whatever they are told, and he exposes them to brutal tests of their faith. Reed’s home becomes a threatening place; it arouses fear and panic, and its dark hallways and staircases traumatise the two women. A more telling impact comes from what the film’s directors Beck and Woods imply about the human condition: Is human thought and direction in religion really ‘controlled’ by the act of believing, and what effect does that have on believers?
Grant excels in the role of Mr Reed. The film invites reflection about the nature of belief, and uses horror imagery and graphic effects to accentuate the notion that the efficacy of organised belief structures will depend on how well those structures are rationalised, verbalised and marketed. Strategies of horror movie-making are used in the film to argue that Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton have to do what someone else wants if they want to stay alive.
This is a film that raises questions it doesn’t answer, but it uses horror imagery with great force. It viciously attacks all forms of religious belief in a strongly acted and scripted way. That summary says two things: this is a film that strongly warns against unwary viewing; and quality ‘horror’ cinema will be used to develop the film’s themes.
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