Heretic

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.

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!

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.

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.