Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Heretic (2024)
While Mr. Reed’s plan inHereticmight seem confusing, the scheme does add up and the ways that it falls apart all make sense upon a re-watch.Hereticis an A24 horror movie about a pair of Mormon missionaries, Sophie Thatcher’s Sister Barnes and Chloe East’s Sister Paxton, who find themselves ensnared in a trap when a seemingly friendly man invites them inside to discuss religion. As the conversation turns sour and the weather outside worsens, the two frightened women ask to leave. Hugh Grant’s previously charming Mr. Reed informs them that they can’t leave and starts a psychological game.
Thecast of characters inHereticis surprisingly small, with only Grant, East, and Thatcher appearing onscreen for most of the movie’s runtime. Eventually, Reed says Paxton and Barnes can leave, but their attempts to escape only bring them to a dank basement. There, they encounter an emaciated older woman who eats a poisoned pie at Reed’s command. She dies soon after, only to seemingly return to life minutes later. She whispers a cryptic warning to the women before disappearing while Paxton and Barnes busily search for an alternative escape route. It is then that Reed’s plan becomes clearer.
Mr. Reed’s Full Plan In Heretic Explained
Mr. Reed Used Trickery and False Imprisonment To Test Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton
Barnes accuses Reed of faking the older woman’s death and subsequent revival, saying that she most likely just went through a near-death experience. This suggestion appears to anger the usually placid villain, who suddenly slits Sister Barnes’ throat without warning. As she bleeds out, Reed removes a contraceptive device from her and claims that this is evidence she is a “Simulation” and not a real person. The previously naive Sister Paxton refuses to buy this claim and accuses Reed of improvising to cover up the fact that his plan has gone wrong. Amused, Reed asks Paxton to flesh out her theory.
Reed planned this to prove to Barnes and Paxton that all organized religions relied on coercive control, rather than faith.
Sister Paxton accurately guesses Reed’s planinHeretic’s ending, and it is a gruesome, convoluted test of her faith. The woman who seemingly died and was reborn was, in reality, two different women. The first genuinely died after eating the poisoned pie, while the second moved her body and took her place. Reed planned this to prove to Barnes and Paxton that, in his view, all organized religions relied on coercive control, rather than faith. When the old woman went off script and told Barnes that “It’s not real,” Reed killed Barnes to justify this comment, claiming Barnes “Wasn’t real.”
How Heretic Sets Up Its Mr. Reed Plan Twist
Heretic Heavily Hints At Reed’s Real Plan Throughout the Movie
AlthoughHeretic’s religious horrorfrequently seems supernatural in nature,Heretic’s plot subtly hints at the grounded reality of Reed’s plan throughout its story. Reed discusses The Hollies’ hit song “The Air That I Breathe” and its links to Radiohead’s “Creep,” and later Lana Del Rey’s “Get Free,” while discussing the differences between iterations. He uses a metaphor involvingThe Landlord Gameand its imitatorMonopolyto get the same point across, comparing Abrahamic religions to these repetitive, derivative art forms. Although it takes Sister Paxton a while to realize this, he is also slyly hinting at the reality behind his apparently immortal prophet.
Reed puts them at ease by claiming his non-existent wife is baking an imaginary blueberry pie.
Reed doesn’t have a captive who can revive herself repeatedly, but instead has numerous interchangeable captives he will happily kill to prove a point. Unlike many recent major horrors,Heretic’s trailers didn’t give awayany of its twists, and this makes Reed’s plan harder to guess before it is revealed. However, there are clues to the reveal dotted throughout the plot. When he first meets the missionaries, Reed puts them at ease by claiming his non-existent wife is baking an imaginary blueberry pie. The fact that the prophet dies by eating a blueberry pie thus hints at another deception.
The Purpose Of Mr. Reed’s Test Explained
Mr. Reed’s Test Was Designed To Display Organised Religion’s Oppressive Control
It might be tricky for viewers to decipher exactly what point Reed is getting at, since he seems to be critical of organized religion, but he also has constructed an elaborate death cult in his labyrinthine home. However,Heretic’s villain plan makes sense when Reed’s final comments to Paxton are taken into consideration.Reed wants to prove to the missionaries that all religious belief is based on control,since circumstances can always be manufactured to shape a given person’s perspective. After offering Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton apparent proof of genuine immortality, Reed then tests their belief in his evidence.
Reed offers to kill Paxton to prove that she will return to life, much like he claims his prophet did. When Paxton rejects this and explains how he really pulled off the plan, Reed is amused. What makesA24’s religious horrorso scary is that its villain doesn’t seem to have a motive beyond underlining the dangers of organized religion. His experiment takes the most coercive elements of organized religions, such as misogyny and deception, distills them, and creates what he calls the one “True religion.” In this twisted way, Grant’s character is trying to help them achieve enlightenment.
What Mr. Reed Wanted To Accomplish In Heretic
Mr. Reed Wanted The Missionaries To Acknowledge The “One True Religion”
From the moment the missionaries enter his home until the bloody finale,Mr. Reed wants to makeHeretic’s heroine see that religion is about control rather than freedom. The group of captives trapped under his house follow his commands instead of trying to escape, which implies that they could be earlier religious emissaries who began to follow Reed after they were convinced by his apparent ability to raise the dead. Reed wants to show Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton that their devotion to their faith is nothing more than a devotion to those who have power over them.
Paxton works out his plan before she kills Reed with help from a dying Barnes and flees the house.
To this end, Reed offers what seems like concert evidence of a real-life resurrection. When this fails to convince Barnes, he kills her and tries to convince Paxton. Instead, Paxton works out his plan before she kills Reed with help from a dying Barnes and flees the house. Although Paxton does decipher the scam and avoids falling for Reed’s tricks, inHeretic’s final moments, she still does not refute his claims. She relies on prayer to escape his house of horrors, butHereticnever offers a definitive answer about whether Reed’s dim view of organized religion was ultimately right or wrong.
