\n<\/p>\n
(Originally Published March 26th 2017)<\/em><\/p>\n Black Fawn Films are on a roll. The Canadian production company has made 8 feature films over the last 4 years. Their catalogue includes\u00a0Antisocial<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0&\u00a0Antisocial 2, The Drownsman, The Sublet, Bite, Let Her Out,<\/strong><\/em>and\u00a0Bed\u00a0of the Dead<\/strong><\/em>. Their latest film,\u00a0The Heretics<\/strong><\/em>, has perfected the multi-sub-genre model and delivers one hell of a fun time while doing it.<\/p>\n Part cabin-in-the-woods thriller, part psychological puzzle, and part demonic possession battleground, the film peppers in some genuine jumps and creeping tension builders. The demonic creature design is unique and effectively unnerving. If you\u2019ve seen\u00a0Bite<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, you\u2019ll know that Black Fawn doesn\u2019t shy away from a body horror and knows how to work with their practical effects to get the job done right.<\/p>\n In\u00a0The Heretics<\/strong><\/em>, a notorious cult kidnaps a young girl and sacrifices themselves by the light of the locust moon. The next morning the girl awakes, caked in dried blood and surrounded by corpses\u2026but safe \u2013 or so she thinks. Years later, the locust moon is about to rise again and the girl is captured once more by a surviving member of the cult. She is taken to a remote cabin where she learns that a demon has been growing inside of her all these years, and before the dawn it will rise.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The cast \u2013 Nina Kiri, Jorja Cadence and Ry Barrett \u2013 have a wonderful chemistry. Their strong and honest performances carry the whole film, and it\u2019s clear that they\u2019re passionate about the project.<\/p>\n I had a chance to sit down with the stars of\u00a0The Heretics<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0to discuss the film before its world premiere.<\/p>\n Kelly McNeely:<\/strong>\u00a0How would you describe\u00a0The Heretics<\/strong><\/em>?<\/p>\n Nina Kiri:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s a cult horror film.<\/p>\n KM:\u00a0<\/strong>In that it\u2019s about a cult\u2026<\/p>\n Jorja Cadence:\u00a0<\/strong>But it\u2019s a future cult film as well. (laughs)<\/p>\n Ry Barrett:\u00a0<\/strong>It falls under the cabin-in-the-woods subgenre, but there\u2019s a lot more going on. It doesn\u2019t just exist in the cabin. It\u2019s sort of a paranoia-infused, psychological, love story, thriller horror.<\/p>\n JC:\u00a0<\/strong>There\u2019s a lot of different elements to the film. It\u2019s hard to give any information about the film until you\u2019ve seen the whole thing.<\/p>\n KM:\u00a0<\/strong>Can you talk a bit about the physicality or the transformation \u2013 again without giving too much away?<\/p>\n NK:<\/strong>\u00a0I guess the physicality is that my character, Gloria, goes through a transformation and finds out a lot about herself and then that starts to reflect on the outside. So a lot of it is internal, and towards the end, in terms of makeup and where the film goes, it\u2019s a very human transformation.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong>\u00a0And how much time did you spend in the makeup chair?<\/p>\n NK:<\/strong>\u00a08 hours on the first day, then it got to be about 7 or 6 the more times that we did it. So usually about 6 hours each day.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong>\u00a0What drew you to the\u00a0The Heretics<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0project and your characters?<\/p>\n JC:<\/strong>\u00a0It was pretty hard when I was auditioning, because they didn\u2019t give us much about what was actually going on. Especially for my character. I think I did 3 auditions and each time I would get a new scene that would show me more about the plot and what was happening with the story. It was like, whoa, what I thought last time definitely wasn\u2019t right! So that was part of the reason I was drawn to the project. It was already so surprising and so alluring within the audition process, and that\u2019s when you know. If the scenes you\u2019re doing then are great, it\u2019s just gonna be such a ride if you actually get the project.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong>\u00a0And so much mystery to it\u2026<\/p>\n JC:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah! So much mystery. I had no idea what was going on and I was like \u201cI gotta do this\u201d.<\/p>\n NK:<\/strong>\u00a0I think the first draw was that it was with a group of people I already knew from Black Fawn, which was cool to see and it\u2019s always really exciting when you get to see familiar faces and names. It was the same with me for the audition process. When it\u2019s an audition you can only go so deep with the few days that you have \u2013 but when I had the full script and worked with an acting coach that I know, we delved into the motives and things about the character. I just became so excited about it and every scene, it was like, oh my god, I had something that was really important to me about that scene.<\/p>\n RB:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019ve worked with Chad [Archibald, director] and the Black Fawn team a handful of times. I\u2019m always interested in working with Chad. He sent me an outline of the first half of the film, so I still didn\u2019t really know where it went or what exactly happened in it, but I got the idea of the duality that my character Thomas has. Getting to play with the audience\u2019s expectations and perception. Each of the characters sort of has that in their own way, and that\u2019s what really drew me into it. The other side is the physicality of his role. He\u2019s mentally and physically pretty damaged so it was great to dive into that.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong>\u00a0As an audience watching horror, we tend to learn from what we see. Lessons like don\u2019t run upstairs, don\u2019t drop your weapon, etc. What lessons can we learn from\u00a0The Heretics<\/strong><\/em>?<\/p>\n RB:<\/strong>\u00a0I guess in the face of complete evil, still try.<\/p>\n NK:<\/strong>\u00a0Psychological strength is really prominent in it, so just having the strength to continue to be normal whatever normal is for you.<\/p>\n RB:<\/strong>\u00a0Your past doesn\u2019t necessarily change who you become. It can, but it doesn\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n KM:<\/strong>\u00a0What can audiences look forward to?<\/p>\n JC:<\/strong>\u00a0Lots of surprises, it\u2019s really thrilling.<\/p>\n RB:<\/strong>\u00a0There are a lot of different genre elements involved. It has psychological elements, supernatural elements, that cabin-in-the-woods subgenre and religious and cult aspects. There\u2019s a lot that gets thrown into it, but it doesn\u2019t get over-complicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Originally Published March 26th 2017) Black Fawn Films are on a roll. The Canadian production company has made 8 feature films over the last 4 years. Their catalogue includes\u00a0Antisocial\u00a0&\u00a0Antisocial 2, The Drownsman, The Sublet, Bite, Let Her Out,and\u00a0Bed\u00a0of the Dead. Their latest film,\u00a0The Heretics, has perfected the multi-sub-genre model and delivers one hell of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11617],"tags":[22280,1027,1088,22282,19774,968,1065,22281],"class_list":["post-32048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror-global-news","tag-black-fawn-films","tag-cast","tag-film","tag-heretics","tag-indie-horror","tag-interview","tag-review","tag-the-heretics"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/ihorror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/the-heretics-movie.png",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"HORROR GLOBAL NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"(Originally Published March 26th 2017) Black Fawn Films are on a roll. The Canadian production company has made 8 feature films over the last 4 years. Their catalogue includes\u00a0Antisocial\u00a0&\u00a0Antisocial 2, The Drownsman, The Sublet, Bite, Let Her Out,and\u00a0Bed\u00a0of the Dead. Their latest film,\u00a0The Heretics, has perfected the multi-sub-genre model and delivers one hell of a…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32050,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32048\/revisions\/32050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}