“Heretic” is here.
A24’s latest high-minded horror movie follows a pair of adorable Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), who arrive at the cottage-like home of a reclusive Englishman Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) and get much more than they bargained for. What starts off as a spirited conversation about faith becomes something much more horrific, as Mr. Reed starts to challenge and then push them in some truly perverse, violent ways.
Will the two missionaries escape this man’s vile grasp? And what will be left of them if they do?
We’re going to talk about the ending of the excellent “Heretic,” including comments from the film’s writer/directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, perhaps best known as the creators of “A Quiet Place.” But this will be a spoiler-heavy breakdown, so turn back now if you haven’t watched the movie.
What happens at the end of “Heretic?”
There’s a lot that happens at the end of “Heretic,” but we will try to be as succinct as possible. Basically, after putting the girls through these series of trials, which is equal parts “The Da Vinci Code” (basically that all religion borrows from older folktales and lore) and “Saw” (get out of this basement alive), he ends up killing Sister Barnes (after she attempts to kill him). Mr. Reed does this whole song and dance where an old lady is killed and then brought back from the dead. Sister Paxton sees through this and knows there was a switcheroo; he just killed an old woman and replaced her with another old woman that looks the same. He finally shows her a “stable” of old women he keeps for this very thing – power, he tells the young missionary, is the ultimate religion.
Does he get what’s coming to him?
He does! Well, sort of.
What do you mean?
Sister Paxton stabs him, but then he stabs her.
Oh no.
Oh yes!
But he ultimately gets his just desserts?
Well, yes. He is crawling towards Sister Paxton, attempting to finish the job, when Sister Barnes, seemingly with her last ounces of life, gets up and stabs him in the head with a piece of wood that they had jimmied loose. She slams the piece of wood into his head, with the nails sticking out of it. They go into his head and kill him. This allows Sister Paxton to shimmy through a small window in the murder dungeon and out into freedom. Her cellphone starts to work again, she calls the police, and a butterfly lands on her finger.
But does this actually happen?
That’s the big question. Earlier in the movie, Paxton says that she wants to be reincarnated as a butterfly, and that she’d make it known it’s her by landing on one of her loved one’s hands. Also, earlier in the movie, a description of the afterlife was that it was calm, with white clouds and a blue sky – exactly the environment she meets after she gets out of the window.
Whoa. This is calling a lot into question.
Exactly! She could have just died when Mr. Reed stabs her; the likelihood of Sister Barnes coming back to life is pretty low, too.
What do the filmmakers say?
“It’s not for us to define it, but there are the parameters that we’ve intentionally set up so that there can be an interpretation or two or three or four and that it is for people that want to participate in the movie once the credits roll, that’s what we’re excited about,” Beck told TheWrap. “We always said the movie as a whole, and this ending in specific, are conversation pieces that hopefully are delivering some sort of introspection, that you can look at your own relationship to belief or atheism, or whatever it is that that you have in your life, and find some sort of conversation, whether it’s with yourself or with a friend or a partner or a family member.”
“We’re so excited to hear how the ending hits people,” Woods added. “Some people take it very literally. Some people don’t even see things that happen in the frame that maybe would affect their interpretations. And it’s been a fascinating experience hearing what people think.”
So they’re not going to say?
No, not really.
Did they add anything else?
Yes. “It was with the utmost purpose in the script and bringing the film to life, to create things that might bump an audience. What we’ve been fortunate enough to hear from certain people that watch the movie is even if there’s an outward rejection of certain ideas or things presented to them, at first, they return to those ideas days later and come out with a different feeling on it,” Beck said. “And that is the intersection of the movie with like how we view people’s relationship with religion, that it’s a constantly evolving thing in people’s lives, and that’s OK. I think for us, the biggest concern is if you are so certain of one interpretation, or so certain of a certain belief, that that can actually lead to larger issues.”
“Heretic” is in theaters now.
