Movie: Heretic (2024) Caution Spoiler Alert

Heretic

Came out; 2024

Time; 1 hour 51 Minutes

Watched: Max

Rated: R for some bloody violence

IMDB Rating; 7/10

Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomato Meter 91%

Popcorn Meter 76%

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring;

Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed

Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes

Chloe East as Sister Paxton

Topher Grace as Elder Kennedy

Story Line;

Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door. Greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), the religious women are drawn into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, pulled further inside the strange man's house

Thoughts:

This was pretty good. It's a slow burn type and I still don't truly understand what happened at the end.

The sheer terror the girls feel when they realize what is happening comes though on the screen.

Hugh Grant in this part was amazing, the creepy was perfect!

CAUTION; Spoiler Alert

Two Mormon missionaries, confident Sister Barnes and timid Sister Paxton, arrive at the home of a reclusive Englishman, Mr. Reed. Reed invites them into his home, but the missionaries are hesitant to be alone with Reed. He assures them they are not alone because his wife is preparing a blueberry pie in the back of the house. They enter and begin to discuss religion, with Reed making several uncomfortable comments about the Mormon faith and the nature of belief. When Reed steps out of the room, Barnes realizes that the smell of blueberry pie is from a candle, the front door is locked, and they have no phone signal.

Following Reed, they enter his study, where he proceeds to give a threatening lecture arguing that all religions are adaptations of one another, and claims to have found the one true religion. Reed gives the girls a choice of two doors to go through in order to exit the house, one if they still believe in God, and one if they do not. Barnes rebels, refuting several of his claims, before they both enter the "Belief" door, only to discover both doors lead to the same dungeon.

A decrepit woman appears, eats a poisoned pie, and dies, with Reed claiming that she is a Prophet of God and the pair will witness her resurrection. A Mormon elder arrives looking for the girls but leaves after discovering nothing. The girls unsuccessfully try screaming to get the Elder's attention, and after returning to the dungeon they witness the Prophet rise again and describe the afterlife. Barnes rejects the Prophet's description, noting its similarity to common hallucinations from near-death experiences. When Barnes gives Paxton a signal to attack Reed, he slashes Barnes's throat and claims that she, too, will resurrect.

After Barnes bleeds out, Reed removes a metal object from inside her arm, claiming it is a microchip and it proves that Barnes was not real and the world is a simulation. Paxton, however, recognizes the object as a contraceptive implant, and realizes that everything was carefully orchestrated by Reed; while the girls were distracted by the Elder's arrival, a second woman hid the Prophet's corpse before taking her place and delivering the afterlife description as scripted by Reed, adding an unplanned comment: "It's not real." Reed's killing of Barnes and attempt to convince Paxton of a simulated reality was an improvisation to cover the plan going awry. Paxton discovers an underground chute through which the Prophet's corpse was hidden and climbs down with Reed promising it will show her the "one true religion."

Paxton finds a chamber full of emaciated women in cages, locked with the bike lock she used before entering Reed' house. She realizes Reed's conclusion: that a desire to control others is the root of all religions. Paxton stabs Reed with a letter opener, but Reed stabs her as she tries to escape. As they bleed in the basement, Paxton begins to pray, claiming to a vexed Reed that it is done to show kindness to others rather than to produce material results. Reed prepares to finish her off, but Barnes, who was either still alive or is briefly resurrected to answer Paxton's prayer, kills him with a plank of wood before succumbing to her injuries and going unconscious again. Paxton tearfully tells her goodbye in case it's their last time seeing each other, then climbs out of a window and sees a butterfly land on her hand; she had earlier expressed a desire to be reincarnated as a butterfly that appears on the hands of her loved ones. The butterfly suddenly vanishes, leaving an injured and confused Paxton alone in the snowy landscape