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.

"I always think it's funny when Hugh meows, when he pulls out Monopoly," says East of the film, which premiered at TIFF earlier this year.

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”),

The final part of 2024 is still promising to deliver on the horror front, with the next hotly-anticipated addition coming from the iconic "indie" studio A24, as they team up with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods to extend Hugh Grant's new villain era in the upcoming Heretic.

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.

Late in his career, Grant has become very adept at curving the English charms that made him a star toward malice.