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"Heretic" is a movie with a message. The message is: Don't get too chummy with smiley men in festive cardigans, especially if they have blueberry pie on their breath. And double-especially if they look like Hugh Grant. Or, worse, if they turn out to actually be Hugh Grant, which is the case here, right down to the crinkly Grant smile and the familiar twinkle of amusement in his eyes. But there's something else about this guy, something rather unpleasant. Who is he? And what has he done with the real Hugh Grant?

From the moment he opens his mansion door to find two young Mormon missionaries standing outside in the wet, thundery night, Grant's character, Mr. Reed, is aglow with reassuring bonhomie. The missionaries, Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), are instantly charmed. In response to their evangelical spiel, Mr. Reed says that yes, he would very much like to know more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Come on in!" he says. "Do you like pie? My wife has pie in the oven."

Mr. Reed's wife turns out to be more of a rumor than a reality, and the mansion, despite his attempts at a bogus domesticity, has certain areas -- especially down in the dim, spooky basement -- that would best be left unvisited. There's a ghastly tenant down there, too, also worth passing up.

The movie is a little too classy to be terrifying (the great Chung Chung-hoon did the cinematography). Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (who worked as scribes on "A Quiet Place") prowl the mansion's low-lit interiors in search of chilly images and situations, and usually find them. But the picture also has a lively eccentricity. Who would ever expect to see Hugh Grant giving forth with a Jar Jar Binks impression? (Grant has always been game for this sort of silliness: In one of his early films, "The Lair of the White Worm," he agreed to utter the priceless line, "I hear you're having trouble with a snake.")

The filmmakers also have a curious obsession with "The Air That I Breathe," the old Hollies hit, which crops up all over the place. This allows Beck and Woods to have Grant deploy some vintage pop-music lore: Eighteen years after their song went Top 10, the Hollies sued Radiohead for lifting its melody and chord progression for their song, "Creep." Then, 25 years later, Radiohead went after Lana Del Rey for what they thought to be the suspicious resemblance to "Creep" of her song "Get Free."

This is an unusual narrative detour for a horror movie. So is the deep dive into the history of the venerable board game "Monopoly," and the sprinkling of religious esoterica throughout. ("How do you feel about polygamy?" Reed asks one of the Mormons.) Reed is a scholar of the world's many faiths, and he tells the missionaries that a long time ago he sought to determine the one true religion. "Unfortunately," he says, "I did."

Eventually Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes realize they're in grave danger with this man. In a strange room with two doors -- one marked "Belief," the other "Disbelief" -- the missionaries tell Reed they have to go.

"I won't keep you if you wish to leave," he tells them. "But I want you to choose which door to go through, based on your faith."

"What does that have to do with us leaving?" Sister Barnes asks.

"Everything," Reed tells her.

To find out more about Kurt Loder and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.

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