For decades, Hugh Grant was the ideal romantic-comedy heartthrob, so there’s something darkly subversive about casting him as a religiously minded psychopath who preys upon women in Heretic, a delightfully deviant new film that mixes theology,

"Heretic," which features two fictional missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is dismissive of what believers find sacred.

This is the question posed by self-proclaimed theology student (and super-calm psychopath), Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), in the entertaining and thought-provoking horror film “Heretic.” It’s the question Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton ...

That’s the premise, and the clever casting, of “Heretic,” a horror film starring Grant in his least likely role: a total sicko. Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, of “A Quiet Place,” the film features moody cinematography from Chung Chung-hoon (2017’s “It”),

That line will echo through the movie, a stimulating discussion of religion that emerges from a horror movie wrapper. Despite a second-half slide and feeling unbalanced, this is the rare movie that combines lots of squirting blood and elevated discussion of the ancient Egyptian god Horus.