Heretical Conclusion Explained: What is the One True Religion?

On November 8, 2024By Littum

This article contains spoilers for Heretics. If you’re here to find out if there’s a post-credits scene, there isn’t.

Heretic was always going to be a film that relied on its performances. Going in, we assume it will be a chamber piece focusing on two Mormon missionaries trying to convert an old man to their religion, which will require some heavy acting from all three leads if the audience is to stay engaged. These performances are all there in spades, but in Act 3 we know that things are not as they seem, and we want to go far beyond a cozy living room chat about religion.

Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) arrive at Mr. Reed’s (Hugh Grant) home just as a blizzard begins to hit. The seemingly friendly man invites the freezing missionaries into his living room and insists that his wife is in the kitchen baking a blueberry pie. Able to smell the confection, the two girls reluctantly enter the home with the caveat that Mr. Reed’s wife is to join them as soon as she finishes baking.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Reed completely invented, Mr. Reed made the scent with a scented candle, and he has a host of tricks and traps in his unhinged house of doom, which he insists are specific to challenging faith to find the one true religion.

Heretical ending explained

One important thing to know going into Heretic is that there isn’t really a second act. You could kind claims to be there for the brief window when Reed traps the girls in the basement and Sister Barnes is still alive, but it mostly just doesn’t exist. One moment the three are having a spirited debate about faith, who is right, and whether or not Mr. Reed should convert, and the next, both sisters are trapped in a murder cellar staring down a supposed prophet.

Reed is able to trap the sisters in the basement by presenting the illusion of choice. A big chunk of the film’s runtime is Grant pulling out every ounce of charisma (which, after years of his films, we know is quite a lot) while cheerfully telling the girls they’re free to leave at any time. But that freedom was never there, and the choices were all illusions.

After the girls end up in the basement, Sister Barnes has had enough. She begins to actively challenge Mr. Reed as the more timid sister looks on. The drop is Reed’s prophet trick, where a screwed-up woman is pulled from yet another unseen corridor in the basement of Hell, fed poison, dies, and then miraculously returns to share what God told her.

Sister Barnes can’t figure out why at first, but she knows it’s bullshit. But before she can prove it, Mr. Reed insists to the horrified Sister Paxton that her partner will spring back to life at any moment, bringing with him prophecies and untold wisdom. When that obviously doesn’t happen, Reed gasps in horror as he “realizes” the scar on Sister Barnes’ arm (he had seen it when they were drinking tea in the living room earlier and chooses to use it to his advantage). The seemingly outraged man begins to insist that “they chipped her” and goes on about some conspiracy as the girl bleeds out and takes her last breath, knowing all the while that the scar on her arm was for Nexplanon – a contraceptive implant.

This is where the film’s tone takes a harsh turn, where Mr. Reed transforms from curious (but apparently harmless) adversary to deranged conspiracy theorist. But as Sister Paxton navigates deeper into the basement maze, she learns that Mr. Reed was neither seeking faith nor was he mentally ill. He had already found in his mind the one true religion.

Sister Paxton eventually realizes that the “prophet” was not one woman, but two (with the first being killed for the sole purpose of challenging the sisters) and stumbles upon a room full of starving and half-frozen women locked in cages. The other woman who had uttered the nonsense “prophecy” had included a warning that helped Sister Paxton come to this realization. Mr. Reed tears off part of his finger gardening because of her troubles and cheerfully chats with Sister Paxton to see if she has come to the realization of what his fabled true religion might be.

It’s control. Not gods or prophets or spirits, just a mean creep with cages full of women in his basement bent on exerting his power over the women he’s trapped.

After this revelation, the rest of the film plays out pretty much as you’d expect with a final shock. Sister Paxton struggles to escape and manages to get back to the main basement where Sister Barnes’ body lies. This is where her final showdown with Mr. Reed unfolds where the fight is no longer a matter of mind, but for her life. It appears that Mr. Reed will emerge victorious for a moment, condemning Sister Paxton to the same fate as her friend or to a short life in one of the man’s cages. But just as victory begins to seem impossible, Sister Barnes (who, you’ll recall, is believed to be dead) shows up with the last remnants of her strength and helps Sister Paxton kill Mr. Reed. Sister Barnes then dies.

We get the hint that Sister Paxton will continue to live—albeit a little less bright-eyed than she had been at the beginning of Heretic—as she wanders out into the blizzard, but the film’s ostensible point remains rooted in Reed’s thirst for control to the point that it has become his religion.

Do you think the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has psychiatrists available?

Does Heretic have a Post-Credits scene?

As previously mentioned, Heretic does not have any post-credits scenes. However, there is a “No generative AI was used to make this movie” note during the credits.

Heretical ending explained

A24’s Heretic Trailer Stills

Does Heretic have a Post-Credits scene?