Heretic

Despite never having heard about the 2012 horror movie "Heretic", from director Peter Handford then I opted to watch it, as I stumbled upon it here in 2025. Yeah, I am a sucker for all things horror.

Writers Bethany Clift and Peter Handford put together a script and narrative that was a bit sluggish and slow paced. There wasn't a whole lot of interesting or thrilling things happening throughout the course of the narrative. And that made for a somewhat dull viewing experience. I am not saying that "Heretic" was a downright bad movie, not at all, it just lacked elements to keep the storyline interesting for the viewers.

I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, and that is actually something that spoke in favor of the movie, as I enjoy watching new and unfamiliar talents on the screen when I watch a movie. The acting performances in the movie were fair enough.

This is not a movie that I would recommend to horror fans, as the movie proved to be somewhat dull and devoid of scary contents. And it definitely is not a movie that will grace my screen a second time.

My rating of director Peter Handford's 2012 movie "Heretic" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Okay, I never normally review stuff on here either but I thought someone had to stick up for this bloody (ha ha!) film! I am not cast or crew member but think some of the reviews on here are being a bit harsh. I agree that is it slow and that isn't your normal horror but I liked the fact it was a bit different and that they have tried to do something different with it although I am not sure it totally works. Also, it is much better than some of the Hollywood stuff I have seen lately (The Purge? Insidious 2? Anyone? Anyone?) and it was made for a lot less money. I don't agree with whoever said the akira kurosawa stuff below (definitely cast or crew or best friend!) but I did enjoy it so I am giving it a 7 because I thought they tried something different and the critics seem to like it so it can't be all that bad. Lots of reviews on here for such a small film though.

Normally, I try to find something positive to say about a film. Plus, I like to give 'home-grown' (British) films a chance. They don't often have the budgets or stars that their Hollywood counterparts often do. But, if the quality of a film was based on its budget, then Michael Bay would have won every Oscar ever.

Unfortunately, 'Heretic' is basically only slightly better than your average student film. It was made for a mere (in film terms) £30,000 and it shows.

I watch a lot of horror films and I don't expect Oscar-worthy performances, but the acting here is terrible. No, it's worse than terrible. It really is some of the worst performances ever committed to film. It's like no one here is an actor and everyone is just a friend who offered to 'help out' by 'starring' in this low budget flick.

Basically, if it was simply not scary that would be one thing. However, seeing as it's not scary AND pathetically acted then you really want to steer well clear of this abomination. There really isn't anything good to say about it. If you read any 'Five star' reviews then I'll put money on them being written by friends of the film-makers.

http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

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.

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.