The Heretiks – Movie Review | Fantastic Fest (3/5)

THE HERETIKS is a horror-thriller getting its World Premiere at 2026 Fantastic Fest. The plot revolves around witches battling each other over a teenage girl. It’s set in the present, but the witches have all the knowledge and power of generations. This comes from the writers of Hellraiser and takes place on Halloween. Read our full The Heretiks movie review here!

THE HERETIKS is world-premiering at Fantastic Fest, and while the main character is a teenage girl and it has lots of charm and funny moments, it also hits hard. Nobody is safe, and there is no guarantee that anyone will survive or make it to the end unscathed. In fact, pretty much every character in this horror-thriller will hurt and suffer in some way.

Consider yourself warned.

Having said that, this could easily be part of a new Halloween tradition for many. The entire movie plays out during Halloween, so we get trick-or-treating before everything gets really brutal. I’ll get to it later, but I would imagine that many want to check out this title due to the people involved. This goes for both the director, writers, and producers. Between them are some amazing and much-loved genre titles.

Continue reading our The Heretiks movie review below.

Try to survive this Halloween

I know the concept of surviving Halloween is not a new one. It’s basically the core plot of an entire horror franchise named after the holiday. However, in The Heretiks, one specific teenage girl is being targeted. Her name is Mabel (Ava Mae Seidensticker), and she’s a cool girl who just got a 2-day suspension. Why? Well, because she had on awesome Halloween-appropriate face paint. I mean, it’s on Halloween, so I understand her reluctance to remove it.

Anyway, that’s not really the story of The Heretiks.

Instead, the core plot of this Halloween horror-thriller is to witness her older sister, Ada (Josie Juliette Wert). She’s a rebellious college dropout who now has to protect her sister. From what, you wonder? Oh, you know, just a feral coven of witches who believe that the younger sister can unlock amazing powers.

Yes, I am oversimplifying this, but you don’t want too many details up front.

Wonderful young talents

Fortunately, they will be helped by the witch who used to lead this coven. Her name is Cai (Kimberly Epstein), and you won’t have to wait long before seeing just how powerful she is. As someone who loves stories about witches that go beyond witches being scary, old, evil hags, I really enjoyed the whole good-and-bad-witches storyline.

Also helping is Mabel’s friend, Wesley (Weapon‘s Luke Speakman), who is just the sweetest and most good-natured boy. Including him in this story was a huge plus.

Quick note: I could not look at the face of Ava Mae Seidensticker (Mabel in The Heretiks) and not think of Matthew Lillard. She has that same very expressive face and solid comedic timing; I felt certain her last name would be Lillard. It’s clearly not, and I don’t know if there’s a relation to the Scream and Carrie actor, but it would not surprise me. Also, in case it wasn’t clear, I loved Ava Mae Seidensticker in this movie. She was great!

The Heretiks world premieres at Fantastic Fest 2026

Let’s get back to those involved with The Heretiks being names you recognize. The Heretiks is directed by Gregg Bishop, who also made the 2008 zombie movie Dance of the Dead. This may not be familiar to many, but he has been a visual effects artist on some huge titles. These include Taika Waititi‘s Thor: Love and Thunder, the Loki series, and Siren.

And then we get to the screenwriters of The Heretiks, who are Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski. They wrote the most recent Hellraiser movie, which is on Hulu. Also, they wrote Stephanie, Super Dark Times, and The Night House. Finally, the producers of this 2026 movie include Brad Miska of the V/H/S and Terrifier franchises, and Chris White of Backrooms and Portals.

Surely, these people (all men, and this is a movie about female witches, but I’ll let it slide because it’s good) are enough to get you intrigued.

As much as I did enjoy The Heretiks, it’s not one of the strongest movies of Fantastic Fest 2026 for me. However, you should know that I say this in the context of most movies screened there getting a rating of 4 out of 5. So, while The Heretiks is undoubtedly a recommendation and a “Fresh” rating, it could have been stronger in terms of pace and overall plot.

The Heretiks is getting its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026.

Details

Director: Gregg Bishop
Writers: Luke Piotrowski & Ben Collins
Stars: Luke Speakman, Ava Mae Seidensticker, Josie Juliette Wert, Isabel Zhou, Tess Williams, Kiera O’Connor, Spencer Brabham, Kimberly Epstein, Leslie Cortes