Starring Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East

Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

A24

Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door.

Writer/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place, 65) deliver a nerve-jangling Halloween treat with this tense game of cat and mouse.

The casting of Hugh Grant as the evil Mr Reed might initially feel against type, but then I guess this is the culmination of his descent into badness by way of the roles he’s played in movies like Paddington 2, Dungeons and Dragons and The Gentlemen. Here he plays the most deplorable sort of villain – the passive-aggressive type who’s always smiling because in his mind he always has the upper hand.

And for a lot of the movie, Reed does hold all the cards. He lures two young ladies into his house and traps them, but not being content to just incarcerate them, he mansplains why their religious beliefs are wrong, while subjecting them to psychological torment. His victims are played by Sophie Thatcher (The Boogeyman) and Chloe East, and your heart goes out to them as they get drawn deeper into the trap. What exactly do they have to sacrifice to survive and will that be enough so that they can see the light of day again?

Grant is clearly having a ball, and it’s a joy when there are cracks in Reed’s smug countenance. This is the sort of movie where it’s hard to tell who is going to make it out alive, and it’s a refreshing diversion following a spate of predictable franchise horror films that go through the same motions. I’m not going to tell you any more, except that one jump scare really took me by surprise.

Verdict: Tense, unpredictable and scary. The perfect Halloween experience. 8/10 

Nick Joy