Heretic (2024)

In Boulder, Colorado, two young missionaries, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, go door to door for their church. On a stormy afternoon, they knock on the door of Mr. Reed, a polite, friendly older man who invites them in. He tells them his wife is in the kitchen baking a blueberry pie.

Mr. Reed is warm and curious at first, asking about their faith and sharing his own opinions. But the conversation slowly turns into a lecture. He argues that every religion is just a copy of older ones. The women start to feel uneasy. They realize the front door is locked on a timer and they cannot leave, and they discover that the smell of pie is coming from a scented candle. There is no wife in the kitchen.

Mr. Reed says they are free to go, but only through one of two doors at the back of the house, one labeled "Belief" and one labeled "Disbelief". The women choose a door, but both doors lead to the same place: a dark basement. There, a frail old woman appears. Mr. Reed calls her a prophet, has her eat a slice of poisoned pie, and she dies in front of them. He tells them she will come back to life.

An elder from their church, Elder Kennedy, comes to the house looking for the two women, but Mr. Reed sends him away. Then the "prophet" seems to return from the dead and talks about the afterlife. But she is really a second woman in disguise, and she slips and says "it's not real". When Sister Barnes calls out the trick, Mr. Reed cuts her throat. He then pulls a small device from her arm and claims it proves that life is a computer simulation.

Sister Paxton sees through it all. The device is not a secret chip. It is a contraceptive implant that many women have, and the whole show has been staged. She escapes through a chute deeper into the house and finds the truth in the last room: women held in cages, starved and broken. Mr. Reed's real goal is to prove his point that religion is about control. He controls these women completely, and he believes that is all any faith really is.

Paxton stabs Mr. Reed, and he stabs her back. As he gets ready to finish her off, Sister Barnes, who was not dead after all, appears behind him and hits him with a board full of nails, killing him. Then Barnes dies from her wounds. Paxton, badly hurt, escapes through a vent and gets out of the house.

Outside, a butterfly lands on her hand, then seems to vanish. So what does it mean? The film leaves it open. It could be a sign from Barnes, a small sign of something greater, or simply a hurt woman's hope. That uncertainty is the point. After a whole film of Mr. Reed insisting faith is a lie, Heretic ends by letting Paxton, and the audience, decide for themselves what to believe.