Movie Lovers,

The task of describing Heretic feels like Bill Hader’s Stefon sketch from SNL:

“If you’re looking for a wild night at the movies, we have just the film for you. A24’s Heretic has it all: Bob Ross Monopoly, a framed picture of Elizabeth Hurley’s dog from the 90s, the evangelical Christian girl from Spielberg’s The Fabelmans portraying a devout Mormon missionary, a stilted discussion about the marketing of Magnum condoms, quotes from Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing, a scented blueberry candle from Bed Bath & Beyond’s liquidation sale, and the Prime Minister from Love Actually wearing Jeffrey Dahmer’s glasses while doing a Jar Jar Binks’ impersonation.”

How the hell did we end up with this movie? Heretic is a result of our nearly three-decade long friendship and filmmaking partnership that started when we were eleven. If you spend enough years together with someone, you’re eventually going to debate the great unknowns: why should you believe in God? Why shouldn’t you believe in God? And what the hell happens when you die? These questions are at the heart of Heretic, all rooted in awkward uncomfortable ungodly conversations. Speaking of…

In 2009, we were walking door-to-door in a tiny Iowa town, location scouting for a short film. If only we had white shirts and black pants, you may have mistaken us as the leads of hit musical “The Book of Mormon”. Our goal was simple: find a quaint house with a white picket fence and ask for permission to film there. Surprisingly, these homes were hard to find, but finally we found one and rang the doorbell. An elderly couple answered the door with smiling faces. We gave them the pitch of why we were on their front step, and they asked us to come inside.

We were led into a well-adorned living room. Bright windows, glass shelves with Hallmark trinkets, flowery patterns on the wallpaper, as if Thomas Kinkade were the interior designer. The couple moved slowly, likely in their 70s, and politely ushered us to a couch, presenting us with lemon-ginger tea, very eager to ask, “So, what’s your film about?”

We stammered through the pitch: “Um, yeah, uh it’s about a guy, who’s running through a small town to be with the love of his life before a giant asteroid crashes into Earth, killing everyone.”

The couple nodded, their smile unwavering, as they landed a sentence that will forever give us nightmares: “Oh yes. That asteroid is coming for us all. And will be here in a couple of months.”

Suddenly the floral patterns on the wallpaper took on an ominous Lovecraftian undertone. The glass menagerie now staring back at us with an oppressive Kubrickian glare. And the lemon-ginger tea… is it spiked with arsenic? For a brief moment we knew the danger of being in the wrong house with the wrong people.

We’ve imbued every scene of Heretic with this discomfort, running in tandem with an exploration of religion. Growing up in the state of “Iowa Nice”, it was impolite to discuss your beliefs. You risked offending someone or, even worse, severing ties with a friend or a family member. So art has always been our chosen outlet, and Heretic is our vessel. We try to pepper in ideas you can chew on, thrills to provoke you, and humor for levity. One thing we can say for certain: Heretic is best viewed in a movie theater, surrounded by strangers laughing or cringing in unison. And if any of you see Heretic in our theater (The Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa), let us know and you’ll get a special treat.

We’ll wrap this up with a spoiler: we don’t have the answers to the great unknown. Does God exist? Do we just cease to exist when we die? Or was that elderly couple right all along, that an asteroid is actually coming to destroy us all?

Perhaps you’ll watch Heretic and arrive at some new conclusions. If you do, shoot us an email. We love a healthy debate.

Scott Beck & Bryan Woods