‘Heretic’ Filmmakers Scott Beck & Bryan Woods Address “Complacency” Within Hollywood & Innovations Required To Avoid “Future Of Fatigue”

deadline.com:

Like Mr. Reed, the villain at the center of their A24 horror thriller Heretic, filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods were preoccupied with an experiment.

An embodiment of lifelong existential questions and concerns, their latest project posed an unusual question: Is it possible to turn a three-person dialectic on faith, within a contained setting, into a thrill ride, the kind of cinematic experience that is essential theatrical viewing?

Released on November 8, Heretic watches as Sisters Paxton (Chloe East) and Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), a pair of Mormon missionaries, are lured into the home of the reclusive Reed (Hugh Grant), where a sinister test of faith and the nature of belief turns into a fight for their lives.

For Beck and Woods, Heretic is something of a rebellion against a filmmaking culture of “complacency” — a world in which it’s easier than ever for art to become just more “white noise.” An Iowa-based duo, the pair have carved out a unique space for themselves in entertainment within the last decade, launching their own franchise with A Quiet Place, and even opening their own movie theater, The Last Picture House, in the city of Davenport.