Heretic

Mormonism just happens to be the easiest target in Heretic, a creepy horror exercise that makes blasphemy fun again.

More playful than provocative, this thriller from directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (65) broadly scrutinizes blind faith, religious zealotry, and aggressive proselytizing — while being smart enough not to take itself too seriously.

It’s not about theology as much as it is about power and control, which might make it exactly about theology, depending on your point of view. Regardless, although the film suffers from a weak ending, it’s a consistently clever and unsettling conversation starter.

The story opens with young LDS missionaries Paxton (Chloe East) and Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) knocking on a large old house belonging to Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), who invites them to come in out of the rain.

Reed insists he has a wife who’s too shy to make her presence known, but is baking a blueberry pie, so the women let their guard down. First mistake.

During their sales pitch, it’s clear Reed has lured them there with ulterior motives. Before long, his roundabout accusations of brainwashing and preying on the weak-minded lead to him turning the tables on the questioning.

The visitors prioritize devotion to the church and their mission over common sense and their own well-being, which they regret only after it’s too late. With hopes for a rescue dwindling at the hands of a sociopath with a messianic complex who essentially believes all faiths are a sham, they need to outwit him to survive.

Grant is terrific while playing deviously against type, as a lonely man who enjoys maximizing the discomfort of his visitors — and moviegoers, as well — through world salads and circular logic. An extended breakdown of links between common spirituality, board games, and Radiohead songs is delightfully head-spinning.

The screenplay generates intrigue through its shifting dynamics, alternately positioning all three of them as frauds and charlatans. It weaves in the labyrinthine house as a character all its own.

Along the way, Beck and Woods shrewdly seduce us into their web of manipulations and contrived twists, much in the same way organized belief systems fundamentally operate. However, the final act bogs down in excessive mumbo-jumbo about reincarnation, and the blurred lines between truth and trickery.

While providing some effective chills, Heretic might also suck pearl-clutching believers into deeper philosophical discussions before the next Sunday service.

Rated R, 110 minutes.