In the new horror movie, “Heretic,” Hugh Grant plays a diabolical religious skeptic who traps two scared missionaries in his house and tries to violently shake their faith. From ‘The Exorcist’ to ‘Heretic,’ why holy horror can be a hit with moviegoers What starts more as a religious studies lecture slowly morphs into a gory escape room for the two door-knocking members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, underscoring just how well-suited religion can be for terrifying and entertaining thrill-seeking moviegoers. “I think it is a fascinating religion-related horror as it raises questions about the institution of religion, the patriarchy of religion,” said Stacey Abbott, a film professor at Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, whose research interests include horror, vampires and zombies. “But it also questions the nature of faith and confronts the audience with a debate about choice, faith and free will.” Horror has had a decades-long attraction to religion, Christianity especially in the U.S., with the 1970s “The Exorcist” and “The Omen” being prime examples. Beyond the jump scares, the …