Quad-Cities filmmakers Beck & Woods say their movie 'Heretic' was 15 years in the making
About 15 years ago, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods found themselves in the living room of an elderly couple in rural Iowa.
At the time, the Bettendorf-raised filmmakers were knocking door-to-door, scouting locations for an apocalyptic movie.
This room, in particular, felt like the typical "grandparents house," Beck said. The room was ornate, with trinkets, glass vases and wallpaper lining the walls.
Sipping on drinks that the couple provided, Beck and Woods made the sales pitch for the movie — the meteor, the end of the world, etc. The couple began to nod.
"They're like, 'Oh yes, we're very familiar, there's an asteroid coming to Earth and it's going to destroy us all in a few years, isn't that grand?'" Beck said.
"They were utterly convinced of the apocalypse coming, and yet they were saying it through these smiles."
The captivity of this conversation, and the urge to get out of the room in the politest way possible, was horrifying, he said.
For those who have seen "Heretic," Beck & Woods' newest film, this story probably sounds familiar.
The A24-produced movie is out nationwide this week. It premiered locally at The Last Picture House, the Davenport cinema co-owned by Beck and Woods, on Saturday.
"Heretic" stars Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East. It follows two Mormon missionaries knocking on doors in rural Colorado. The pair of girls gets lured into the home of Mr. Reed, a religiously contemplative man played by the charismatic Grant.
It is not quite a full-blown horror like previous Beck & Woods flicks "A Quiet Place," "The Boogeyman" or "Haunt." That's because the monster underneath the tension of "Heretic" isn't a literal one — it's the terror of not knowing what might come in the afterlife.
"When you're trying to come up with a scary movie idea, you're always thinking, 'What scares people?'" Woods said.
"And it just became more and more obvious that every horror film, everyone's fear, is really rooted in the same thing: the fear of death."
'The terror of psychology'
In "Heretic," the missionaries and their captor jaw back and forth about the utility and logic of religion. It's a chess match, but the stakes of a checkmate for the girls are high.
Thus, the movie's jump scares are less literal and more conversational, something Beck and Woods did on purpose. That idea, Woods said, came from a discussion between the two about why the horror genre doesn't exist in theater the same way it does in film.
In "Heretic," they gave themselves a challenge.
"We started thinking — are we focusing on these exciting, alluring elements of the genre and cinema, and neglecting something that might actually be more terrifying?" he said. "Which is the terror of psychology."
It's a deeply personal topic for these two childhood friends. Beck said he remembers them discussing religion together as kids, trying to sort it all out. They had friends who came from Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
At the same time, Beck and Woods were curious about the idea of cults and televangelists profiting off of people's beliefs. These conflicting emotions were hard to contain. The "Heretic" script, Beck said, is the result of the duo needing to vomit it all out.
So why now? It was necessary.
Woods' father passed away unexpectedly a few years ago, and those conversations about faith came back, he said. Woods channeled the grief into this movie.
"It was extremely therapeutic," he said. "It honestly felt life-saving."
As a result, the movie ends up offering more questions than answers. That, too, was purposeful.
Beck said they tried to look at religion and atheism with empathy. "Heretic," like the religion it studies, is up for interpretation by whoever sees it.
"The ambition was to engineer a movie that would be very interesting to see on subsequent viewings," Woods said. "We've already been hearing from some people who've gotten a chance to see it two or three times.
"For some people, it substantiates their interpretation, but for a lot of people, it changes their interpretation and adds a depth to the experience."
Settling on Hugh Grant for the role
Beck and Woods said they picked the Mormon church, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a vehicle for the exploration of faith, because of its infancy — the church was founded less than 200 years ago.
"It's an American religion and it's new," Woods said. "The history is study-able."
Beck and Woods' curiosity in Mormon faith was piqued when the two visited Utah a few years ago to shoot for a film. They got to know missionaries in the state and found it important to bring an appropriate representation to the church. They also hoped to flip the stereotypes of Latter-day Saints upside down. The film uses humor to toy with an audience's expectations.
That starts with East and Thatcher, who bring a real depth to the lead characters. Both actresses grew up in the church, Woods said, so they understood the dialect and demeanor of someone raised Mormon.
"There was a truth in their portrayal that reminded us of missionaries that we had met and sat with," he said. "They were just as excited to not do a kind of cheesy, cliche portrayal of the characters."
On set, Thatcher and East brought new information about the church to the filmmakers. Missionary traditions, like the significance of never separating out and about, were brought to their attention. That even extended to the outfits.
In a Q&A held after the screening of "Heretic" at The Last Picture House on Saturday, East said that she shared photos with costume designer Betsy Heimann of her friends who were on missions. She stayed in touch with those friends when it came to balancing the character's humor and faith.
"I really did have my missionary friends on speed dial," she said.
Of course, you can't talk about the film without talking about Grant. Those who know of the British heartthrob as a rom-com actor will be pleased to see his performance as a wicked kidnapper.
As they finished writing the film, Beck and Woods said there was pressure to pick a great lead.
"The script kind of started getting disseminated around town in Hollywood, so then all of a sudden we had movie stars raising their hands saying they wanted to play Mr. Reed," Woods said. "It put an exciting pressure on the casting."
They reflected on Grant's performances in "Paddington 2," "The Undoing" and "Cloud Atlas" when deciding on him for the role. Beck said they realized soon he was the person they needed for the movie.
"He's weaponized his charm, but he's still characterizing it with his intellect and that wit, and those were the tenets of who Mr. Reed had to be," he said. "We now could never envision anybody else in this role."
'It all starts here in the Quad-Cities'
While Thatcher and Grant couldn't make it to The Last Picture House's "Heretic" screening, it wasn't for a lack of trying.
"Sophie and Hugh really, really wanted to be here," Beck told the theater during the Q&A on Saturday.
Beck added that Grant is very familiar with The Last Picture House. In fact, the actor wouldn't mind having a Picture House of his own.
"His favorite cinema in London just closed down," Beck said. "And so he's been trying to find a way, joking-but-maybe-serious, to get The Last Picture House in London.
"But it all starts here in the Quad-Cities."
"Heretic" is the first Beck & Woods production to release since the duo opened the Picture House last December. The feeling of stepping in front of that audience was surreal, Beck said.
He and Woods used to film short movies in the lot behind the property when they were teenagers. They premiered their films at the Adler down the street.
"I'm sincere about the idea that every time we make a movie, there's this end goal with the Quad-Cities in mind," Beck said.
It's a celebration, he said, of the community they're indebted to.
The end credits include special thanks to pastors and youth leaders from the church Beck grew up in. Two people from the church were seated in the theater on Saturday, he said. All of their fingerprints are on the film.
"We really feel like we owe it to the Quad-Cities," Woods said. "At a very young age, they came out to our premieres, watched our hard-to-watch movies, patted us on the back and supported us."
Woods said it is an honor to bring Hollywood home.
The theater has already hosted folks like "A Quiet Place: Day One" director Michael Sarnoski and "Holes" director Andrew Davis. The Dec. 5 screening of "The Room," featuring a Q&A with actor Greg Sestero, is close to selling out.
They're just getting started.
"We can't talk about it yet, but we have some of our hero-filmmakers, like top-list people, who are asking to come to the theater next year," Woods said.
You could say that Beck & Woods are becoming A-listers themselves.
On Saturday, cinephiles lined up in The Last Picture House lobby just to say hello to the duo. "A Quiet Place," their breakout movie, was the second highest grossing horror film of 2018. In fact, it's one of the most successful horror movies of all-time.
Woods said, though, that their reaction to this fame isn't to feel any sort of pressure. They felt "emboldened" after "A Quiet Place," he said, to know that the audience would embrace a "bold swing" of a film.
People are embracing "Heretic" already, too. Through more than 100 reviews, it has a 94% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of this year's most critically-acclaimed movies.
Of course, this major triumph comes back to the Quad-Cities. It always does.
The story of "Heretic" dates back 15 years to a small town in Iowa, where an eerily inviting living room stuck with two young filmmakers.
It goes back to the late nights at the old Village Inn in downtown Bettendorf, where a teenage Beck and Woods sat and contemplated the most terrifying of questions.
Those nights are what "Heretic" is all about.
"(Conversations) that you have with friends to question the unknowable," Beck said. "But try to find and scratch at something that feels real or tangible, or borderline profound."
The 33 most anticipated movies of the fall
