Heretic

This film was apparently a first time effort for its makers and with that in mind was not too awful…. The acting was not bad, pretty natural in fact, but was not helped by a script that lacked logic and progression and some dodgy direction. Quite often the characters seemed to have forgotten something they said a couple of minutes before and drama was forced into the script rather than created by writing craft and careful direction. This made some of the characters almost unbearable to watch, the policeman for example. The script writer could maybe have researched police procedure, shouting "I am a police officer…" does not grant much at all. The cinematography was professional and the sound track was OK though a little over powering at times.

This was a strange little film. Obviously made on a low budget and with some serious lack of direction at times but for all its failings it has a couple of good moments in it. The fact the budget was small does mean we don't get loads of awful and completely unjustified and non-scary CGI, so there is some good news!

Without spoiling anything there is obviously a connection to the several recent crimes and unsavoury actions of certain priests, bishops, and others clergymen that should be displaying the best qualities in people, not dwelling into the seedy descent and diabolic degrading going ons they have since been accused of.

Anyway, it reminded me of Angel Heart in some ways but not nearly as good. For me though far more promising than chucky or even the awful insidious 2!

ALL of the good reviews must have been written by cast and crew although they really should distance themselves from this poor attempt at feature film making. Complete waste of time. Classify this as a boring Christian drama rather than a horror genre film. Horror? Really? I concur with another reviewer that this could have been a passable short if done as a film school project, but as a feature film it fails in every way, completely. And, a shout out to the shill reviewers: Why would you even bother hyping this the way you do? Why not just say that this was, in your opinion, a great effort by up and coming film makers to put together a professional quality film on a shoestring budget. I might not agree, but at least there could be some truth to your review. By attempting to hype this bore-fest as anything more than that you do a disservice to both the viewer and the film makers. Overall, a lousy uncompelling story to start with.

Another one of those low budget British indie horrors that somehow got a wide DVD release complete with attractive slipcase and fake critical acclaim. The model seems to be to package these as blockbusters and stock up Internet review sites with fake all-star reviews in a bid to draw viewers. HERETIC is much the same as the others I've watched, a painfully boring horror flick in search of a proper story, not endless chit-chat and wandering around looking at mildly interesting locations. The tale is about a priest with a crisis of conscience who experiences frightening events that may or may not be in his head, but it's all laboured and unengaging.

I tried, I REALLY tried sitting through this; I normally like religious based Thrillers / Horror films a lot. I'm not saying that the movie is totally awful, by any means. I get the impression that all involved really did try their best, especially the primary actor playing the priest.

It's just that it honestly is not that good. NO WHERE NEAR what these 9 and 10 star reviews are stating, not even close... Heh, along with being seriously annoyed when I see those, I also find it so funny in how transparent they are... 'Hitchcock! Genius!', etc., etc... It's SO funny, if they just didn't go over the top like they do, making the film sound like the next 'Cumming' for God's sake, and assume that we are all impressionable 3 year-olds, and maybe give it 7 stars, just MAYBE some of us just might buy it. But, no... Pretty stupid...

Anyway, I think the idea for the story is fine, but to me anyway, the endless, shallow dialog just doesn't do it. And, come on, having this somewhat seasoned priest saying 'F v< k' every other sentence; really...??? Just straight out dumb...

A GOOD director might have been able to salvage this movie; perhaps adding more subtlety and mood may have given this a decent chance at being a pretty good, entertaining Horror film. So, I feel that the director probably carries the most blame here, particularly in the somewhat stupid, and very common way these characters spoke to one another. Two of MANY examples would be the early discussion between the two priests at the bar (including many laughable 'F v< ks') and the flashback to the confessional with James. I think that the EXACT same thing could have been accomplished, but just a hell of a LOT better! In the first case, couldn't these two 'good friends' have shown a little more realistic concern and believable emotion between them, instead of this superficial, 'When are you gonna treat me as a friend?!' and 'No really,I'm fine'. That's it...? That is supposed to engage us and convince us of how close they are...? Uh huh... And, in the second instance in the confessional, couldn't the director have given that scene (they WERE discussing a VERY serious matter) some REAL bloody WEIGHT...!?? Instead we get, 'Pray to God for help' and the reply, 'F v< k that!'

PLEASE...

I cannot truly recommend this in any way; like I mentioned, it's certainly not the worst movie that I've seen, just one where I feel that a SERIOUS lack of the director's skill in eliciting good performances from the actors GREATLY took away from whatever potential may have been there...