Heretic Star Chloe East on the A24 Horror Thriller’s ‘Polarizing’ Ending

As I sat down to watch Heretic, I felt a sense of familiarity wash over me, much like the feeling of stepping into a Mormon church service after a long absence. The film, with its intricate narrative and thought-provoking themes, resonated deeply with my own experiences growing up in the Latter-day Saints faith.

In my own experience, when two earnest Mormon missionaries and I found ourselves ensnared in a chilling power struggle with a smooth yet ominous adversary, the foundations of our beliefs were severely put to the test as we battled to escape his labyrinthine fortress of a prison unscathed.

At the start of the movie “Heretic,” currently showing in cinemas, characters Sister Paxton (portrayed by Chloe East from “The Fabelmans”) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher known for “Yellowjackets”) are invited into the house of a seemingly amiable elderly gentleman named Mr. Reed (played by Hugh Grant with a subtle charm). He mentions his wife is occupied in the kitchen, baking a blueberry pie. However, as the story unfolds, they discern that there’s no wife present and that their host harbors something far more malicious than merely discussing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for their visit.

As Mr. Reed subjected them to a prolonged critique of all major religions and insisted on a critical decision regarding belief or non-belief that seemed to be a matter of life and death, the girls realized they would need to outsmart their captor if they wanted any chance of freedom by playing his game more skillfully.

To someone like “Heretic”, who was brought up in the LDS faith but no longer adheres to it, the appeal of the movie lies in its subjectivity. As she explains to TIME during an interview, everyone’s interpretation of the puzzle-box film is influenced by their unique upbringing, and this intrigues her. She expresses interest in understanding different viewpoints, as she has Mormon friends who are eager to see it, with some already having watched it and appreciating it for specific reasons. There are also individuals who aren’t religious at all but find the movie captivating for entirely distinct reasons.

Religion and Radiohead

In the development of this suspenseful tale, screenwriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, responsible for co-writing and conceptualizing the 2018 hit horror film A Quiet Place, guide audiences into a maze of hypocrisy. Though Mr. Reed effectively undermines the religious convictions of characters like Paxton and Barnes, his argument is weakened because he himself is a self-promoting extremist when it comes to his own ideologies. This concept initially left East uncertain about her support for it.

She mentions that there were certain things that gave her apprehension. Initially, when she received the audition and read the brief two-sentence summary, she felt unsure if she could handle it due to what seemed like a potentially one-sided religious declaration. However, after delving into the script, she discovered that it was actually a balanced conversation with a counterargument.

In time, Barnes, who was more down-to-earth and resolute, successfully persuades Paxton, the gentler and less experienced one, to stay strong in their beliefs and walk through the “Belief” door instead of opting for “Disbelief,” which would have succumbed to Mr. Reed’s outburst – an argument that included pop culture references spanning from Monopoly to Radiohead to Jar Jar Binks. It’s starting to appear that this duo is better prepared intellectually to stand up to their adversary than he might have presumed.

As a fellow moviegoer, let me share my perspective: “Playing this role felt incredibly authentic for me, having grown up Mormon and deeply embedded in the Mormon community. It wasn’t something I needed to study or understand; it was as if I were living it all over again. This character was a reflection of my childhood, my friends, and myself. I feel like I know this role better than anyone else.

The butterfly dream

In his self-made underworld of a cellar, Mr. Reed brings in a malnourished and deformed lady, whom he asserts is a seer. He then forces Paxton and Barnes to watch as she consumes a deadly pie and eventually perishes. After a momentary diversion that lures them back up the stairs to the cellar entrance, the girls revisit the cellar and observe the woman apparently coming back to life and prophesying to them.

As a cinephile, I’ve been following this story closely, and it seems that Mr. Reed’s tricks are becoming more apparent to Paxton. The woman who was believed to have been resurrected isn’t the original one; instead, it appears another woman took her place by hiding in a secret trap door with the deceased.

After discovering approximately ten emaciated and shivering women confined in cages, Paxton comes to realize that all of Mr. Reed’s actions from their arrival at the house were intended to control her, much like he controlled his other captives—however, he hadn’t planned on her using the letter opener the girls discovered in the initial two-doors room to attack him and stab him in the neck instead.

In a turn of events, when Paxton re-enters the room where Barnes lay lifeless, a wounded Mr. Reed suddenly resurfaces and attacks Paxton with a stab in the abdomen. However, before Reed could finish him off, it seems Barnes, who appeared to be dead earlier, miraculously regains strength and impales Reed’s head with a spiked plank, thus saving Paxton. Barnes falls back to the floor, lifeless, while Paxton manages to flee towards higher levels of the house through a window by escaping out of it.

In the snowy outdoors, Paxton gazes at her hand and notices a butterfly sitting on her fingertip. Suddenly, the scene switches quickly and the butterfly disappears, giving the impression that it was just a figment of her imagination. This scene recalls two previous instances in the movie – when Paxton expressed a desire to be reborn as a butterfly to touch her loved ones, and when Mr. Reed mentioned the Butterfly Dream of Zhuangzi, a Chinese philosopher’s tale about the essence of reality. Ultimately, the ending, whether you appreciate it or not based on your feelings towards ambiguity, can be open to multiple interpretations.

According to East, everyone who views it has a unique experience. For myself, I’ve watched the movie around four or five times, and my thoughts on the ending keep shifting and changing over time. There are numerous contrasting viewpoints about it, and I believe that there isn’t necessarily a correct or incorrect interpretation.

Did Barnes manage to find the remaining ounce of her strength to murder Mr. Reed and Paxton, who seemed delusional about the butterfly, simply have a hallucination? Is it possible that Barnes’ sudden intervention was not a divine miracle but rather a coincidence, and she transformed into the butterfly symbolically as a metaphor for rebirth? Or could it be that Paxton is no longer alive and his experiences in the afterlife, as described by the character portrayed as a prophet earlier in the movie, are merely figments of his imagination?

As with all questions of faith, you’re going to have to decide for yourself.

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2024-11-08 23:06