Heretic: The Religious, Psychological Horror That’s Not Really About Religion At All

*Spoiler Alert for Heretic

Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, and Hugh Grant as our antagonist, opened in theaters on November 8, 2024. The thriller follows two young women who are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton. Sister Barnes, played by Sophie Thatcher, whom you may recognize from Showtime’s Yellowjackets, is more skeptical and subversive of the two. Even just by looking at her in comparison to Sister Paxton, Sister Barnes does not look like the stereotypical “sweet, Mormon girl.” Her dark hair is tied back in a much less traditionally feminine braid and she is dressed in dark colors. Her companion, Sister Paxton, played by Chloe East, is much more approachable in her demeanor and dress. She wears glasses, a light pink cardigan over a floral blouse, and her hair is clipped back but still falling down over her shoulders. The wardrobe and physical appearances of the girls clue audiences in from the get-go as to how the girls will approach the horrors they will encounter. 

For many, the film Heretic triggered a discourse around one of the films biggest themes-religion. However, I would argue that Heretic was not actually about religion at all. I will preface my article by saying that I am not a Latter-day Saint, nor I am very familiar with their practices, besides a fair knowledge of scandals, tragedies, and problematic practices relayed in the news. It is understandable why Latter-day Saints, or anyone religious, may feel a hesitation to see the film. However,  as a religious person myself, I will say again, I do not think Heretic was about religion at all. Rather, I think religion was used by the film as a narrative device to portray a tool that is used to harm and control women. Throughout the  entirety of the film, Hugh Grant’s character, Mr. Reed, an unsettling yet awkwardly charming man, is testing Sister Barnes’ and Sister Paxton’s faith. After lying that he wanted to learn more about the church, he attempts to overwhelm and manipulate the girls by rattling off an intellectual diatribe about the world’s religions, why they are all copies of each other, and most importantly, why they are wrong. Mr. Reed claims his purpose in trapping the girls in his home is to get them to understand what the one true religion is. Ultimately, after forcing the girls down into his basement and making them witness a “miracle” that proves religion is not real. He kills Sister Barnes and it is Sister Paxton who tells Mr. Reed what he wants to hear. “The one true religion is control,” she says after finding a room of women in cages. Mr. Reed then exalts Sister Paxton, coming to the conclusion he hoped she would. 

On the surface, it seems that his goal is to get Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton to denounce their faith–but that never happens. However, in my opinion, that was not what he truly wanted.. Mr. Reed is not obsessed with religion, he is obsessed with controlling and harming women. Throughout much of the film, Mr. Reed is talking to the girls, trying to make them feel less smart than him because of his skill in using large words. At one point, while challenging one of Mr. Reed’s notions on religion, Sister Paxton even admits she knows he’s wrong, but can’t say why because she isn’t as smart as him. I don’t know about anyone else, but most of the time when Mr. Reed was speaking with a facade of kindness and a condescending tone, I just kept thinking “typical man.” I know I am not the only girl out there who has met and even dated (unfortunately) men who believe themselves to be intellectually superior to women, thus giving them the excuse to act as “god” over them and control them. This is why I would argue that Heretic is much less about how religion controls women, and while  it definitely does, it is more about how men feel entitled to control women who they deem less than. 

Throughout the film Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton remain polite, if not uncomfortable, around Mr. Reed, even as his actions become increasingly inappropriate and terrifying. Mr. Reed argues that it is the girls’ religion that socialized them to be polite to anyone and everyone even if they are harming them. This is essentially Mr. Reed dodging taking accountability for his actions. He believes that if the girls were never Mormon, then they would never be polite to him and thus he would never harm them. As the LA Times review of the film put it, Mr. Reed has a “pathological case of mansplaining.” The reality is, Mr. Reed was going to harm them whether they were religious, polite, or anything else because he is a predator and it is a game to him. Nothing was going to change that. 

While watching the film I was making a mistake by begging the girls to stop being so nice to him and stand up to him. Eventually they did, but once I saw the women he had been keeping in cages, I realized that it did not matter. By hoping the girls would change their behavior and challenge him, I was asking them to be accountable for the actions of Mr. Reed. Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton did not need to change anything, Mr. Reed needed to stop being a murderer and a creep. I may sound naive in asking that, but I believe it is a stance that needs to be taken towards men. Women should not have to dictate how they move in the world based on the predatory actions of men. Men should be the ones who change their behavior. Women should not be responsible for changing how men act, men should be responsible for that. 

• heretic
• horror
• hugh grant
• movie review