Heretic Was The Perfect Modern Horror Movie, Then Lost Me In The Final 10 Minutes

Heretic was a rare example of a modern horror movie that had the potential to stand alongside the very best of the genre if it didn’t fall apart in the last ten minutes. As a psychological story that tackled themes of belief, control, religion, and skepticism through the experiences of two young Mormon missionaries and an eccentric older man, Hugh Grant shed his once charming rom-com persona to play a genuinely frightening villain. With a sharp script from writers and directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, Heretic delivered thrills and boasted some real thematic depth.

While Heretic’s final act meant it lost out on being ranked among the best horror movies of all time, it still stands as a uniquely interesting release from A24. In an era filled with disappointing slashers and endless franchise sequels, it was exciting to see a new horror that was trying something new and actually had a point to make. However, for all its potential, Heretic left me cold and disappointed through its jarring, tone-shifting conclusion.

Heretic Is A Fantastic, Tense, Modern Horror Movie

Casting Hugh Grant As Mr. Reed Was A Stroke Of Genius

With a chilling and claustrophobic premise, Heretic began with two female Mormons visiting the home of a reclusive middle-aged man by the name of Mr. Reed, who had expressed interest in learning more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church.) With the hope of converting the older man to their religion, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) enter his home under the understanding that his wife was preparing a blueberry pie and would also be joining them. This lie sets in motion the girls being trapped in an unnerving and worrying religious debate.

Heretic worked so well as a tense modern horror because it did not lay all its cards out on the table and was content to slowly build tension and let us realize all was not right with Mr. Reed. Things take a turn when Barnes and Paxton realize they are locked inside Mr. Reed’s home, and it becomes abundantly clear that his intentions were deeply sinister and they had accidentally entered a sick and twisted game with him. Rather than discuss the merits of faith and Mormonism, Mr. Reed wished to force them to confront the hypocrisy of religion head-on.

Heretic Ending Explained

Heretic’s deadly ending features plenty of twists and turns that underscore the thematic throughlines of the religious horror film.

Mr. Reed was a compelling villain whose twisted philosophy felt extra sinister coming from a perfectly cast Hugh Grant. Through sharp dialogue and ever-heightening stakes, watching Heretic for the first time felt like a worthy successor to earlier religious critical classics like The Exorcist and The Wicker Man. As Mr. Reed was revealed to be a genuine, murderous madman, this only came after Heretic had taken its time to lay the groundwork for a truly tense, frightening, and thought-provoking narrative. That’s why it was such a shame everything fell apart in the final sequence.

Heretic’s Final 10 Minutes Let The Movie Down

The Tonal Shift Saw Heretic Turn From A Psychological Horror To A Slasher

Chloe East as Sister Paxton holding her stomach in pain while looking at a miniature in Heretic

One reason that Heretic was such an effective film for the majority of its runtime was that it was quite cerebral and subtle throughout. Even as Mr. Reed’s violent impulses were confirmed after the young missionaries entered the “Belief” door and found themselves in a dark dungeon with a decrepit, poisoned woman whom Reed claimed was a prophet of God. While this moment switched the tone of Heretic from one of uncomfortably philosophizing to classic horror movie territory, it was still grounded in its twisted logic.

Heretic admittedly became increasingly intense throughout, but it was the final few minutes that the film felt less like a thoughtful exploration of blind belief and more like a generic and forgettable slasher.

The most jarring shift of Heretic came in the final ten minutes after the girls witnessed the tortured woman die and seemingly resurrect, Barnes had her throat slit by Mr. Reed, and Paxton started to recognize that Reed was orchestrating everything to appear supernatural. Heretic admittedly became increasingly intense throughout, but it was the final few minutes that the film felt less like a thoughtful exploration of blind belief and more like a generic and forgettable slasher.

That’s because the final moments of Heretic devolved into total chaos as everyone started stabbing each other. With Sister Barnes struggling to survive, the reveal that Barnes was still alive and had just enough energy to kill Reed before succumbing to her injuries and dying turned these last moments into a bloodbath that had little to do with the core themes of the film. As a movie that excelled due to the strength of its writing and the thought-provoking discussions among its characters, to have the ending of Heretic play out as an over-the-top display of violent excess was disappointing.

Killing Mr. Reed Isn’t The Point Of Heretic As A Movie

Reed’s Death Doesn’t Really Defeat Him

Heretic was a film that wanted us to confront our own relationship with religion and belief and offered a chance for us to dig deep into what the point of an organized faith system actually is. While Mr. Reed wanted to dismantle and dismiss the young women’s devotion, the fact that the movie ended with him having his head caved in by Barnes before Paxton climbs out the window and escapes didn’t feel like a satisfying conclusion, considering all that preceded it.

While Heretic’s Mr. Reed presented himself as a religious skeptic, the truth was that he had simply recast himself as God and was attempting to control everyone around him. The way that Reed trapped Barnes and Paxton in his own home and forced them to play his twisted game was the perfect analogy for everything he claimed to stand against. In this sense, for the young missionaries to truly come out on top, they would need to kill both his ideas and the man himself.

A true defeat of Mr. Reed would have seen Paxton challenge his beliefs and force him to accept that his twisted philosophy was wrong. Only after Paxton had destroyed Mr. Reed on his terms and broken down his flawed logic and equally fanatical coercive control tactics would his death have made sense from a narrative point of view. Everything about Heretic appeared to be laying the groundwork for a deeply thought-provoking conclusion that would sum up all the interesting, insightful ideas it had conveyed throughout its runtime, but in the end, Heretic was just like any other horror movie.