Your Faith Will Set You Free

This article contains massive spoilers for “Heretic.”

Do you believe in something because you fundamentally believe it to be true with every fiber of your being, or do you believe something because it’s all you’ve ever known? This is the philosophical question posed by Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) in the heart of “Heretic,” the critical horror hit from “65” directing duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. After two unsuspecting Mormon missionaries named Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) arrive at Mr. Reed’s door to spend a minute talking about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he used a charming sweater vest and the promise of blueberry pie to lure them into the house. There, they are thrust into a fight for their lives that will force them to question their faith in religion, their fellow man, and their own understanding of reality.

In his review of “Heretic,” /Film’s Jacob Hall said “It’s dark and nasty and cerebral, but it also never forgets to be a good time at the movies.” Mr. Reed directs the good Sisters into not just the physical labyrinth of his home, but also a psychological obstacle course designed to make them question absolutely everything they know. At the same time, Beck/Woods’ approach to Mr. Reed’s incessant lecturing and questioning is designed to force the audience to question their own beliefs right alongside them (which was entirely the director’s goal). What does it say about those of us who see Mr. Reed’s points about religion being nothing more than an exercise in control, when he’s also a sadist who targets impressionable young people for his own sick games? What does it mean when those of us against organized religion suddenly hope that the Sisters’ beliefs in miracles are true and that they’ll escape unharmed?

The ending of “Heretic,” like all religious texts, is up to interpretation.

Once Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton realize that Mr. Reed has no interest in converting to Mormonism and only expressed interest in their message as a means to get them in his home, lecture them on theology, and force them into his cavernous basement to study them, Sister Barnes immediately takes charge. As the more worldly and logical of the pair (compared to Paxton’s naivete), Barnes immediately pushes back on Mr. Reed’s ideologies, poking holes in his inconsistencies and calling out his rhetorical arguments — which compare different iterations of religions to board game expansions and lawsuits surrounding music rights — as nothing more than clever wordplay, designed to persuade those too afraid to challenge him.

And she’s right. Distilling something as complicated as religion down to an analogy of “the Torah is like the Landlord’s Game and the Bible is like Monopoly” sounds clever on paper to someone who has just discovered Richard Dawkins for the first time. However, it’s no more correct than those freaks who peddle catchphrases like “a key that can open many locks is called a master key, but a lock that can be opened by many keys is a bad lock” to defend bioessentialist male promiscuity while demonizing non-virginal women. In order to escape his home, Mr. Reed has set up two doors labeled “Belief” and “Disbelief,” forcing the two to choose. Sister Barnes rightfully predicts that it actually won’t matter which door they choose, because they’re going to wind up in the same place no matter what. At the end of the day, death comes for us all regardless of what we believe, but the women choose to go through the door marked “Belief.”

The Sisters go through the door and end up in a dingy cellar, where a decrepit woman later enters while holding a poisoned blueberry pie. Mr. Reed claims that she is a prophet who will die before their eyes and come back to life through a resurrection, giving them the chance to witness a miracle. The so-called “prophet” does die, but then she comes back to life, and mumbles about what she saw in the afterlife before saying, “It isn’t real.”

The Sisters try multiple tactics in the hopes of finding an alternate escape route, but after a massive argument with Sister Barnes, Mr. Reed slits her throat and leaves her to die. Sister Paxton is devastated, but Mr. Reed claims that Barnes will resurrect just like the prophet. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen, so he then claims Sister Barnes isn’t real and that they’re all living in a simulation — as evidenced by a piece of metal he pulls out of Barnes’ arm. He tries to persuade Sister Paxton to take her own life as a way out of the simulation, but instead she immediately challenges Mr Reed’s hypothesis.

Sister Paxton identifies the metal as a contraceptive implant and, based on the flimsiness of Mr’s Reed’s simulation story (his earlier board game analogy was well-rehearsed and even had props), concludes that something hasn’t gone according to plan. She correctly guesses that the “prophet” telling her “it isn’t real” was an attempt to help the Sisters, and Mr. Reed’s “simulation” explanation was a hasty improvisation.

Paxton then presents her own theory on how Mr. Reed accomplished the “miracle” of resurrection: he merely switched out a dead woman with a different woman when the girls were distracted by their own escape plans. She eventually finds a hatch leading to another cellar containing a room filled with women, all resembling the prophet, being kept in cages. She has discovered Mr. Reed’s belief that the one true religion is just “control,” and that every interaction (save for his simulation improv) was part of his plan to show her that he can control anyone and convince them to do anything he wants them to do — just like religions do.

Paxton, thoroughly fed up with Mr. Reed’s games, stabs him with a letter opener that Sister Barnes stole before the Sisters entered the “Belief” door — a sign that Mr. Reed, like religion itself, is never prepared for how to handle those who rebel against the teachings. She makes her way through the second cellar and back upstairs, but returns to the first cellar to check on the seemingly dead Sister Barnes. Unfortunately, Mr. Reed makes his way back as well, stabbing Paxton in the stomach.

Accepting her fate, she embraces her faith and begins praying. Moved by the display Reed crawls toward her and embraces her, while simultaneously preparing to unleash a death blow. At that moment, Sister Barnes rises and kills him with a weapon she stashed earlier: a wooden board with protruding nails. Then, Barnes dies. Her final act is one of salvation — a miracle.

Sister Paxton races through the house, finding an escape through a window and landing in the woods outside, now covered in snow. As she stumbles her way through, a butterfly lands on her hand — a reference to a moment at the beginning of the movie when Sister Paxton said if she were to ever be reincarnated, she’d return as a butterfly and land on the hand of her loved ones so they’d know it was her. However, when the film cuts back to her hand a moment later, the butterfly is gone. Was it ever real, or did Paxton hallucinate it as a result of her blood loss and trauma?

If we believe the butterfly is real, it indicates that Sister Barnes is giving Sister Paxton proof that she is still with her. This interpretation is one that rewards faith: that Sister Paxton’s belief in God, her prayers for help, and the miracle of Sister Barnes’ final act is why she survived. Alternatively, there’s also the thought that Sister Paxton did die in the cellar, and this escape was merely her version of entering the Kingdom of Heaven — a reward for her selfless time on Earth and her unwavering faith in the face of the worst circumstances possible.

Sister Paxton stabbing Mr. Reed was also not a part of his plan, considering he confesses that the room filled with “prophets” are nothing more than other evangelicals he’s lured to his property and kept hostage simply because he can. He plans to keep Sister Paxton caged up and under his control, but she takes control of the situation, defies the one true religion (control), and escapes. When Sister Barnes pops up to save Sister Paxton with her one last act before dying, there is a logical explanation. Terminal lucidity is the term to describe a burst of physical and/or mental energy shortly before death. This even happens to people who have been completely immobile for days or even weeks, so it’s logical to believe Sister Barnes utilized that last batch of terminal lucidity to take down Mr. Reed.

When Paxton escapes the house and winds up outside, the forest covered in snow is a result of the storm that raged on while they were being kept captive, and why when Elder Kennedy (Topher Grace) showed up to check if the Sisters had come by Mr. Reed’s house, he didn’t waste too much time investigating. Reed convinced him that because the weather was bad it likely kept the Sisters from arriving in the first place: a lie, but one that Elder Kennedy believed. 

Ultimately, the ending of “Heretic” will differ from person to person based on — you guessed it — their beliefs.

“Heretic” is playing in theaters everywhere from A24.