A sadist menaces a pair of Mormon missionaries in Directors Scott Beck & Bryan Woods’ psychological horror, Heretic.
Beck & Woods’ film finds two young women ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse when they knock on the door of the diabolical Mr. Reed. Trapped in his home, they must turn to their faith if they want to make it out alive.
On November 24, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Beck & Woods discussed the making of Heretic during a Q&A moderated by Director Michael Mohan (Immaculate).
During the conversation, Woods spoke about how he and Beck worked with the film’s star, Hugh Grant, during the preproduction process.
“Hugh would write us these emails that would like be pages. There would be like an essay about something [his character] Reed did or thought about, asking questions about some of the references they’re making, historical context. We’d write him an essay back and that was really helpful for our process because one of the tricky things about having two filmmakers is that when an actor like Hugh asks a deep question in person, our brains can kind of mind meld, but not really, so we’re kind of answering in real time before we’ve had a chance to discuss. It was so helpful, Hugh’s process, because we’d receive an email and then talk about it like ‘I kind of saw it like this,’ and it gave us a chance to get on the same page about things as opposed to kind of BSing our way through it and pretending we know exactly what he’s asking about.”
Beck shared how they balanced the dark, but sometimes humorous tone.
“The tone was the scariest thing for us because we knew you’re only building tone of dread you’re going to exhaust that very early. But we also knew if you pierce the dread too often then you start deflating that. So, there’s moments in the script where he’s bringing up the idea of polygamy and he undercuts it by, ‘Let’s talk about fast food.’ We were trying to make sure that there’s enough of a hook that’s a theological debate but then it’s also speaking to the audience in more metaphoric ways to make it more fun and accessible.”
Beck & Woods’ other directorial credits include the feature films The Bride Wore Blood, Nightlight, Haunt and 65; the movie for television Spread; and episodes of 50 States of Fright. They have both have been DGA members since 2012.