The film, written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Wood (the screenwriters of “A Quiet Place”), turns the actor's awkward grin into a symbol of fear and dread.

For decades, Hugh Grant was the ideal romantic-comedy heartthrob, so there’s something darkly subversive about casting him as a religiously minded psychopath who preys upon women in Heretic, a delightfully deviant new film that mixes theology,

"Heretic," which features two fictional missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is dismissive of what believers find sacred.

Hugh Grant turns his natural charm into a weapon in "Heretic," a stimulating discussion of religion that emerges from a horror movie wrapper.

Late in his career, Grant has become very adept at curving the English charms that made him a star toward malice.

That’s the premise, and the clever casting, of “Heretic,” a horror film starring Grant in his least likely role: a total sicko. Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, of “A Quiet Place,” the film features moody cinematography from Chung Chung-hoon (2017’s “It”),