TL;DR: A short medieval folk horror about a woman pushed out of her village and forced into a forest where nothing is simple, not the people, not the woods, and not the idea of safety - worth watching if you like dark stories that rely more on tension and mood.
When the Village Feels Worse Than the Forest
There’s a moment early in Heresy where I found myself thinking, “Oh, so this is the kind of place where logic goes to die”, and I don’t mean that as a compliment, because the village in this film runs on fear, shame, and a very confident misunderstanding of basic human empathy, where everyone is either judging someone, enforcing a rule, or loudly pretending they are morally superior while doing something deeply unpleasant, so, you know, a fun place to live.
This is a medieval-set story, but it doesn’t waste time trying to romanticise the period, as there are no cosy taverns, no heroic charm, just a cramped community where survival seems tied to how well you can conform, and the focus here is Frieda, a woman who cannot get pregnant, which in this setting basically puts her on the village’s unofficial “problem list” - not formally, of course, because they’d never admit that., they just treat her like she’s already halfway out the door.
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Life in a Place That Runs on Blame
What struck me quickly is how efficient the village is at cruelty without ever calling it that, as nobody thinks they’re the villain, and that’s the trick - the priest doesn’t see himself as harsh, just correct, the neighbors don’t see themselves as unkind, just observant - and even when something clearly unfair happens, it gets wrapped in language that makes it all sound very reasonable.
This poor woman Frieda is surrounded by people who just act like her body is public property, where every disappointment she has is treated like a shared failure that she alone is responsible for, so there’s a particular type of discomfort in watching that kind of thinking unfold, because it doesn’t need monsters or magic to feel threatening, it’s just people agreeing with each other far too confidently.
Anneke Sluiters puts in a good performance as Frieda, with a quiet, worn-down energy, and while she doesn’t get many speeches or even dramatic moments to explain how she feels, you feel what she is feeling via her small reactions, like she’s constantly trying not to take up space in a place that already decided she doesn’t belong.
Once Frieda ends up in the forest, the tone shifts, but not in a simple “now she’s safe” way, because now it's all about the forest, which also isn’t comforting, nor welcoming, and it doesn’t pretend to be either, but what’s interesting is that it also doesn’t carry the same kind of judgement she just escaped from.
The villagers talk about the forest like it’s a place filled with punishment and sin, but the film doesn’t fully commit to that idea., so it leaves things unclear enough that you start to question whether the danger is really out there, or just something the village invented to keep people afraid and obedient.
There are hints of something older in the woods, something that doesn’t follow human rules, but the film doesn’t rush to explain it, as it lets the uncertainty sit there, and I’ll admit, I preferred that to over-explaining it, as not everything needs a neat explanation handed out like a receipt.
Horror That Comes From People
The most uncomfortable parts of Heresy aren’t even in the forest, as they’re in the village, and what the film does quite well is show how quickly a group can decide what is acceptable and then stick to it, even when it clearly stops making sense, so once that system is in place, it doesn’t need monsters, as it already has enough damage built into everyday behavior.
When something more supernatural does appear, it’s handled in a way that avoids turning the film into a spectacle, because it’s brief, a bit unsettling, and then gone again, and the film never stops to admire what is happening, it just lets it exist, like another part of the world Frieda has to deal with.
At just over an hour, Heresy moves quickly, so there’s not a lot of padding, and it doesn’t linger on subplots or try to widen its scope unnecessarily, so everything stays tightly focused on Frieda and her situation, which keeps the story moving - that said, the short runtime also means some ideas don’t get much room to breathe, so there are moments where I wanted a bit more time with certain characters or situations, not because the film is confusing, but because it introduces interesting tensions and then moves on before they fully settle.
Still, I’d rather have a film that knows when to stop than one that overstays its welcome trying to explain every corner of its world., and I also liked that visually, everything leans toward restraint as well, with no bright moments trying to soften the edges, where the village feels tight and uncomfortable, and the forest feels uncertain but open, so both spaces are unpleasant in different ways.
Final Thoughts
Heresy is not a film trying to be complicated, but it is interested in how simple ideas can turn dangerous when nobody questions them, so it keeps things small, focused, and the kind of film where the real tension comes from watching people justify themselves a little too easily, while watching one woman try to exist in a place that has already decided she shouldn’t.