Hugh Grant is an amazingly convincing villain – who'd have thought it?

Heretic is the latest horror film from writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quite Place) and stars Hugh Grant, now enjoying the villainous chapter of his career. (See: Paddington 2, The Undoing, The Gentlemen, etc.) Here, he plays a fella who imprisons two young Mormon missionaries as he seeks to torment and terrify them into renouncing their faith.

What Grant’s most good at, it turns out, is being thoroughly bad

Though the film doesn’t quite land and may not be as clever as it thinks it is, it builds tension nicely, and it’s enjoyable watching Grant have so much fun. All those years as a rom-com star when what he’s most good at, it turns out, is being thoroughly bad.

The two young Mormon missionaries are Sisters Barnes and Paxton, wonderfully played by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, both of whom were brought up as Mormons but chose to leave to become actors. Barnes and Paxton are lively, bubbly, curious young women who don’t have much luck proselytising on the street as people push past them, declining their leaflets. (I always decline such leaflets, less for religious reasons, more for their crimes against graphic design.) But they are hopeful of a convert in the form of a Mr Reed, who has expressed an interest in the church via its elders and has requested a home visit. The girls arrive during a downpour to discover his house stands alone in a wood. (Run, girls, run!) But when Mr Reed (Grant) comes to the door in his grandpa knit, with glasses in his top pocket, he could not be friendlier or more welcoming. Rules dictate that they can’t be with a man on his own but, he says, his wife is in the kitchen baking a blueberry pie. Will that do? It will.

It turns out Mr Reed is theologically knowledgeable and it’s a cosy chat at first – he’s delightful and funny – but as the radiators clank and the clock over the mantelpiece ticks and rain batters the windows the atmosphere gets creepier and creepier as he challenges more and more of what they say.