‘Heretics intense end, explained | Mashable

If you have seen Hereticschances are you’ll never see Hugh Grant the same way again.

This ominous, cheekily academic and complex A24 horror film from co-writers/co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A quiet place) literally traps you in a maze of unspoken menace, religious debate, and blueberry pie, where Grant’s horribly hospitable Mr. Reed proves one of the more surprising villains in modern horror.

But what about that ending? What actually happened with the big reveal and what was up with the last minute? We’ll dig into the disturbing details at the end of Hereticsso consider this yours massive spoiler warning.

What is Heretics sore?

On a dark and stormy afternoon, Mormon missionaries Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are assigned to visit addresses that have previously signed up for more information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Next on their list is Mr. Reed (Grant), who invites them in on the socially appropriate premise that his wife is baking in the next room.

Mr. Reed seems quite charming at first, engaging the pair in a deep conversation about faith and how “religion is not at the center of culture anymore.” But it quickly turns out that something is wrong; for example, this self-described scholar of religion may be brandishing a “husband” mug, but his wife is nowhere to be seen. It is not until Mr. Reed reveals his more sinister methods of testing one’s faith and enlightenment that the two women realize they are in real danger. In order to leave the house, Mr. Reed that they choose one of two doors, one marked “faith” and one marked “disbelief”. But where do they lead?

What happens at the end of Heretics?

The end of Heretics is a whirlwind of tense debate about faith and reality, gut-wrenching revelations and violent endings. But it is also simply a man who craves ultimate control over women and masks his murderous desires with long-winded lectures about the pitfalls and trappings of modern religion.

After a terrifying ordeal and a vicious attack on Barnes, Paxton adopts his friend’s strategy to “challenge” Mr. Reed and changes her tact from survival-based politeness to a more aggressive exchange. She discusses the concept of faith with him before accusing him of being a charlatan—the “miracle” they were forced to see in Mr. Reed’s basement was a ruse. Paxton figures out there must be another entrance to the basement to test her theory and finds a trapdoor. She is once again encouraged by Mr. Reed to test her faith and decides to climb into it, even though she really has no choice at this point.

There she finds the core of Mr. Reed’s sinister operation: a tunnel with sinister occult symbols leading to a freezing cold room. Here she discovers several women imprisoned in cages, in extremely poor health and starving. Paxton was right. Every time Mr. Reed captures a woman in his labyrinth, he poisons another via pie to “demonstrate” the miracle to the newly captured, replacing them with one of the women in the cages. The macabre switcheroo apparently lets him play God over and over — while taking notes. Mr. Reed probably signs up for “more information” to lure religious representatives to his home, and it all works like clockwork; the lights are timed, the locks are automatic, and the script is set.

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Paxton is “allowed” to find these women by Mr. Reed so he can happily declare the true religion: control. He follows her through another door into the cage area for his “a-ha!” moment. But she stabs him with her hidden letter opener and uses his exit to escape. But she gets lost in the maze-like house and retreats to the basement. There, Paxton is stabbed by a suddenly appeared Mr. Reed, who took the tunnel. Bleeding, she does one thing he didn’t expect: She prays. As she does so, Barnes suddenly stabs Mr. Reed with the nail board in his last act. Paxton gathers the strength to return to the studio, where she uses Mr. Reed’s treehouse map to find a small vent to crawl out through, and she stumbles through the woods to freedom. Finally, a butterfly lands on her finger, then disappears.

What is Mr. Reed’s real motivation here?

Earlier in the film, when they are first invited in, Mr. Reed the missionaries on their thoughts on one great question: “What is the one true religion?” It keeps coming up throughout the film where Mr. Reed admits to trying “every sect, cult and doctrine” out there looking for the answer, trawling through ancient history and modern religions and finally coming to one conclusion: Control is the one true religion. Essentially, Mr. Reed constructed experiments in his macabre basement theater to “prove” this, after lengthy monologues about Monopoly, Jar Jar Binks and Radiohead to bolster his arguments.

Mr. Reed has built a maze-like trap for faith-driven women, one that manipulates them into doubting their faith as a distraction from the fact that they are being held captive by a homicidal man. “It’s easy to control someone who has lost everything,” he says. The number of women under Mr. Reed’s control also nods to the very first question he asked Barnes and Paxton in the living room: “How do you feel about polygamy?” It’s a foreshadowing you may have missed, but an unpleasant one nonetheless.

Ultimately, this is a man who wants to exercise power over women. At the end of the day, it’s not about religion, and it’s not about faith; it is about violent, male control. From the moment Barnes and Paxton entered Mr. Reed’s metal-clad, locked house, he knew he had a literal captive audience for his findings.

But they outwitted him and Barnes made a final sacrifice to save his friend.

What’s with the butterfly?

At the end of the film, we see Paxton stumbling through the woods in his final escape from Mr. Reed’s house. In the final shots, a butterfly lands on her finger and then disappears.

It is likely that the butterfly is a representation of her fallen friend, Barnes, who was present in an earlier scene when the three discussed what happens when we die. Paxton had said that she wanted to be reincarnated as a butterfly and that she would land on the fingertips of her loved ones to make sure they knew it was her. Barnes may have been trying to let Paxton know she was with her.

Alternatively, Paxton just had a near-death experience, so maybe the butterfly is a representation of himself, on another plane of existence, checking in.

As the butterfly disappears almost immediately, we are left in an ambiguous state of whether Paxton saw what she wanted to see (affirming that believing is seeing) or not. Was her hallucination evidence of faith or a fabricated vision?

Heretics is now in the cinema.