Heretic

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!

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/

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...

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.

Some of these reviews are clearly friends of the director or crew. The back of the blu ray said strong gore, violence !?! Where?!........why this film was an 18 I do not know as it's very tame. Some fairly decent acting from this amateur cast. This felt like a short story that was stretched out far too long.

Bonus point for the gorgeous female leads. Especially the flirty blonde with the vodka. Swiiiing. Ha ha.