Drawing on the purity of Latter-day Saint missionaries to sell fear. How ‘Heretic’ mocks faith

During her early training in marriage and family therapy in Calgary, Alberta, Jill Manning learned that profanity reveals what a society holds sacred.
Swearing is often an underdog power play — a way for the speaker to rebel against societal norms or perceived power structures by targeting what others highly value. She began to see vulgarity “as a tool of protest.”
“By referencing what a culture values in profane ways, swear words achieve their impact through shock or offense,” she said.
I found myself reflecting on Manning’s observation this month, as I kept seeing reviews and intentionally shocking advertisements for “Heretic“ — a movie that likewise co-opts something highly valued and sacred to faith, juxtaposing it with the evil stuff of nightmares (upsetting depictions of the kidnapping and assault of two Latter-day Saint missionaries).
The Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs explored religion’s role in horror films during a forum in 2018. The plots of these films — the playbook — often rely on themes such as sin and redemption and the struggle between good and evil — and include an innocent, naive female victim who is most often a person of faith and purity. It strengthens the plot as producers widen the gap between horror, abuse and manipulation and the film’s victims.
“Horror films frequently delve into religious motifs precisely because they evoke deep fears and moral dilemmas surrounding good and evil, the supernatural, and life and death,” said Manning.
The fascination with religion (Catholics have been disproportionately featured in horror movies for years), makes sense considering religion often serves as a framework for understanding life generally as well as the unknown, she says. “Consequently, when clergy are depicted in sinister ways, demons are shown as unstoppable, or pious women are demonically possessed despite their faith, it heightens tension and provokes existential questions about what is true and what humans can reliably count on.”
“By intertwining fear with religious symbols, these films pique our deepest anxieties about faith and morality, and it is this emotional amplification that is the hallmark of effective horror,” explained Manning.
As an advocate of the First Amendment and an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, part of me wants to be flattered that “Heretic” is a story of the sweet, pure — maybe even naïve — missionaries from my faith. Indeed, Latter-day Saint missionaries represent the goodness, altruism and youth the horror playbook calls for.
But I am not flattered. Here’s why:
In the name of entertainment, this movie is an attack on faith. Media reports detail that in the opening moments of the movie, the missionaries encounter other young adults, one of whom pulls up the skirt of one Latter-day Saint in order to reveal the sacred garments she wears under her clothing. The act is a physical assault — justified because the recipient is a person of faith. I suspect it is intended to make these eventual victims of the movie’s main character seem even more foreign and strange. But mocking religious symbols of any faith — the nun’s habit, the priest’s cassock, the Muslim’s skullcap, the Jewish prayer shawl, or the robes of the Buddhist monk — is bigotry. Hollywood should not get a pass in the name of entertainment or horror.
The ad campaign for “Heretic” is inappropriate, insensitive and insulting to both people of faith and victims of actual crimes. A24, the studio that produced the film, purchased ads inside the Salt Lake airport in the months leading up to the movie’s premiere. Strikingly similar to legitimate missing persons posters, the ads display a photograph of the women who play the sister missionaries along with the message, “What happened to PAXTON and BARNES?”
The ads greeted the hundreds of Latter-day Saint missionaries walking through the airport en route to missionary training in Utah or while traveling to their assigned area of service. They also, no doubt, felt jarring to families of legitimate missing persons — who deal with the gutting reality of the absence of their loved ones on a minute-by-minute, day-by-day basis.
Using vulnerability to market movies is shameful. It takes great courage to launch children into the world — to college, the peace corps, the military or religious service for Latter-day Saints. Parents take a deep breath — knowing their 18- or 19-year-old may or may not make great decisions — and let go. In these kinds of moments, my husband and I pray — a lot.
However, we never felt our daughters were safer than when they were serving full-time missions, where they were never alone, had a curfew and received safety training that made them more conscientious drivers. They also received new emotional and mental health skills and learned how to cook good food, safely use electricity and deal with insect bites.
Still, as the “Heretic” trailer made its way to my social media feeds and to the movie theaters where I have been seeing other films, I cringed.
Manning says that is part of the playbook. While jump scares can be fun, the adrenalin rush is notoriously short-lived, she says. “Undermining an audience’s belief system, on the other hand, leaves people vulnerable — and vulnerability is a great marketing tool.”
While the movie belittles sacred missionary service, the reality is that missionary service changes lives for good. I have sent daughters to Honduras, Brazil and Ohio as missionaries. In the process, my children learned diligence, preparation, courage and faith. They entered missionary service young and tentative, and returned strong and confident.
Like my daughters, Manning also served a full-time Latter-day Saint mission.
She entered the mission field with the intention of studying international law, but returned with a determination to pursue a career in mental health. “My time as a missionary pushed me far beyond my comfort zones, yet it also helped me discover the sources of peace I rely on today,” she said. “I was confronted with opportunities to see my strengths and vulnerabilities in ways I couldn’t fully appreciate at the time, but I’m genuinely grateful for how that immersive experience laid a foundation for me — spiritually, personally, academically, temporally and relationally.”
Did she encounter unsafe situations? Yes. But no more than she would have encountered as a graduate student — and maybe even less than she would have faced on a college campus.
Like many missionaries, Manning probably listened to people ranting against religion — as I understand Hugh Grant’s character does in “Heretic”. But she also found her own faith expanded. “My relationship with my Savior deepened, my understanding of doctrine grew stronger and my perspective on personal growth and working with diverse people expanded significantly,” she said. “Ultimately, my time in the mission field was transformative, and I carry the lessons I learned with me every day.”
I suspect she was a lot like the sweet, innocent, pure characters the horror movie genre “playbook” calls for.
Newly aware of this “playbook,” I am going to avoid anything that celebrates evil or undermines and mocks the sacred — whether that is profanity’s juvenile and profane power plays or attempts to use horror to skewer what so many of us find sweet and holy.