A24’s New Horror Movie Is Even More Exciting Thanks To 2023’s Underrated $82 Million Stephen King Adaptation (2024)

While A24’s Heretic already looked promising, the psychological thriller’s reunion of an underrated Stephen King adaptation’s creators makes it even more exciting. 2024’s Heretic is the latest in a string of A24 horror movies. The distributor has built a reputation for releasing thoughtful, offbeat horror movies that challenge audiences, much like the rest of A24’s movies. From 2024’s body horror Tusk to director Ti West's slasher trilogy, which consists of X, Pearl, and MaXXXine, A24 has released some of the most exciting and interesting new horror movies of the last decade. 2024 continues this trend.

The upcoming Heretic sees A24 venture into the nightmarish world of religious horror once again. Heretic tells the story of two ill-fated Mormon missionaries who knock on the door of a seemingly sweet man in the hopes of converting him. Soon, they find themselves trapped in his isolated home and forced to partake in a twisted test of their faith. In an inspired casting coup, the villain of Heretic is played by rom-com mainstay Hugh Grant. Grant played some morally dubious characters in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Paddington 2, but this is his first horror villain role.

A24’s Heretic Reunites The Boogeyman’s Sophie Thatcher and Scott Beck

A Quiet Place’s Screenwriter Adapted The Stephen King Story in 2023

However, Grant isn’t the only exciting addition to Heretic’s cast. Heretic reunites the star and screenwriter of 2023’s underrated Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman with Scott Beck penning the movie’s screenplay and Sophie Thatcher playing one of its heroines. Thatcher played The Boogeyman’s heroine Sadie in the intense horror drama, which earned a solid $82 million upon its 2023 release. While it wasn’t as effective as Beck’s earlier collaboration with co-writer Bryan Woods, 2018’s acclaimed blockbuster A Quiet Place, The Boogeyman did balance its explicit horror elements with a poignant depiction of a family coping with grief.

Stephen King’s source story follows a troubled patient who recounts his encounters with the boogeyman to his therapist, and the brief, grim tale includes a classic twist ending. In contrast, 2023’s The Boogeyman is surprisingly sad, focusing on a family who are torn apart by the loss of their mother before the eponymous monster even rears its head. The Boogeyman’s family drama offered Thatcher a chance to impress as a dramatic performer, but its horror elements were somewhat sidelined in the process. In contrast, Heretic’s self-contained story has the potential to be a more intense, traditional horror thrill ride.

Heretic Can Outdo The Boogeyman In One Crucial Area

A24’s New Horror Promises Beck’s Signature Intensity

Like A Quiet Place or Beck and Woods’ later 2019 horror movie Haunt, A24’s upcoming religious horror Heretic is a full-blown chase movie. Where The Boogeyman was a more meditative horror story, Heretic promises constant tension and scares thanks to its limited locations and compressed time frame. Heretic’s trailer advertises something closer in tone to Green Room or Creep than Thatcher’s earlier collaboration with Woods. This is great news as it means that Heretic can allow A24 to offer a more intense, pulse-pounding brand of horror when the psychological thriller arrives later in 2024.

Heretic (2024)

Horror

Thriller

Director

Scott Beck , Bryan Woods

Release Date

November 15, 2024

Studio(s)

A24

Writers

Scott Beck , Bryan Woods

Cast

Hugh Grant , Sophie Thatcher , Chloe East , Elle McKinnon , Stephanie Lavigne , Elle Young , River Codack , Carolyn Adair