What did you think of the ending of HERETIC and what themes and deeper meanings did you take away from this film? Thanks for watching! If you liked this video please Like, Comment, and Share! Be sure to hit that notification bell to know when I post my latest videos.
Well said and you basically described a lot of the concepts I was thinking about as well. Thank you for that. Very good, psychological thriller. These are the types of horror films that I enjoy. I just wanted to also add a fun little thing I noticed about the music at the end credits and the concepts of iterations. The ending titles song was by Sophie Thatcher "Knockin on Heaven's Door" which also has a very similar in tone and musical style as Mazzy Star's "Fade into You." I'm unsure whether or not that was intentional from the filmmakers but just something I noticed.
I like that its really not introducing anything new. Its all up to you. I interpreted it like this: The final girl (forgot all the names..been a while) was helped AND WITNESSED, as he said was gonna happen...just not how he set it up. She actually witnessed 2 miriacles....the resurrection of her friend to save her life AND that there is an afterlife/reincarnation. BUUUUT, depending on my mood it could change to they all died and that last bit was just her death and she was leaving her body.
That’s interesting, I took it as the doors might look that way. But I believe that if they went to the unbelief door they would’ve been slaves like the other woman following whatever he wanted. But they had to choose that. He told the girl that the women that were their choose to be there. But because they choose to believe he died and they weren’t slaves to him
Yes, they led to the same place. I believe he knew they would never choose the disbelief door. He purposely got missionaries for a reason. Everything was calculated for him and controlled. He knew mostly what they were going to do next.
He was essentially manipulating them based on his obsessively extensive knowledge of multiple religions. His intelligence was intimidating and believable. I could tell immediately he went through a period of extreme religious studies, which made him scared. Which he points out. The writing was incredible, and I hope for more movies like this. The truly scary thing is what atrocities humanity is capable of.
Finally someone who sees the ending how I did. I feel a lot of people missed the setup and what the movie was trying to say. If you "believe" Barnes somehow survived what she did, you are taking a leap of faith based on everything that was established.
Definitely my thoughts on the ending. I personally believe she didn’t make it out, it really felt like such a lighthearted ending given that it was pretty much impossible to get out.
From someone on quora: I survived forty minutes with a cut throat and I've read of people surviving hours. It varies based on a variety of factors; were major arteries cut? How deep was the cut? How was the neck and head positioned after? If no major vessels are cut, a person can survive for much longer. My mother cut my throat when I was a toddler. Fortunately, she pushed my head back, meaning the knife missed the most important arteries. I required life saving surgery once ambulance staff found me, and a tube in my throat for 11 years.
@@anyagetman8596 That's why I suspended disbelief for that scene, I knew not all throat cuts are immediately lethal, I've heard stories of people getting dismembered or disemboweled, only for them to put their guts back in place and seek aid and survive. I didn't take a leap of faith, I went of real actual events that occurred to people. But I can see how the narrative is pointing towards the conclusion that she died.
@@konghere it's sad, but yeah. People really see this garbage as smart. Then again, these same people just voted in the dumbest person on the planet and think he's going to "save" them. lmao!
I left the theater, felt headache and scary. Why people have to trap and harm other like that. Life is hard, and this man with well educated is weird and dangerous.
I think the movie did a great job expanding on the question of religion itself. Was the man a psychopath, ofc… but his show and tell for his thought process was valid. Monopoly is a game essentially of control , religion holds power and control as well. Different boards , same game. Different books/same control. It does get thrown off after the basement because he’s staging a miracle, but it’s also to point out that it’s not real. He wanted them to know miracles(religion) are not real only a way of control, he proves this by revealing the “magic trick” he’s a psycho.. no different than our world leaders that use monopoly, religion, political views to control us. It’s testing your beliefs of reality over faith.
@@nlmbkeyze1951 he only mentioned claims proving his point, while purposefully leaving out the glaring claims that disprove his points. The girl made it obvious when she told him about the differences between Jesus and horas being that he had a bird head. He was trying to make them not believe by any means, that included lying. He lied the whole entire time, and he also gaslit them, and tried making them feel stupid. Because what would’ve eventually happened once he was completed with them was they would’ve been like the other women that were down there as basically slaves. You can see what he really believes in a brief moment as see some writings that at the end of it had lucifer almost like a tribute to him. His god was control and he wanted to strip them of faith to be their god. But they chose the door of belief, and he ends up crawling on his belly with his mouth open almost looking like he’s trying to eat her, then getting hit with a wooden plank that has nails in it, on his head. Jesus feet had nails in them, almost symbolic to the Bible verse that his heal shall bruise your head.
His argument failed though. His argument was that all religion boils down to absolute control, and that because they bought into it, he could drag them down into that pit of their own will, and enslave them. And to a certain degree he was right. Paxton did go into the pit to see the body. I wouldn't exactly call it free will when there was no other way to go, but she walked down there herself. But the moment she stabbed him in the neck, his argument crumbled. It actually failed before when the false prophet went off his script, but the point is, his control is not absolute. It's just another trick like everything else in his house, and it was broken. But she didn't break his control by rejecting the religious principles he had used to manipulate her, we know that because she continued to pray when she was dying. His experiment proved his thesis wrong. There is more to religion than control. That doesn't make organized religion perfect. But it does make Mr. Reed a lunatic who lived and died for nothing.
SPOILERS. . . . . . . . The basement isn't just a reference to the seven circles of hell, it's the 5th of seven levels. Paxton did die in the end. But one critical piece of information you didn't mention was Barnes' conversation about her near death experience. What Paxton is experiencing in the end isn't necessarily entering the afterlife, it's a visual representation of her thinking about her butterfly during the final moments before her brain shuts down. They all died in the basement.
Ooh.. one way to interpret! I like it but I think Barnes did “resurrect” because the topic “miracle” was brought up frequently and they didnt really need to zoom in the broken wooden piece with three nails if it was all her imagination
I think that that's what she's experienced via hallucination, but I don't believe it's to ge taken literal. I need to rewatch it, though. Maybe I'll feel difficult afterwards.
I agree with you. The end was an illusion when really they all died in the basement. But even from a logical standpoint (which convinced me) Paxton couldn’t have escaped the basement after being stabbed in the gut, magically found the key, and crawled out the window. Logically she would have died in the basement anyways
@@AspenCharmKitchen BUT... you cant say miracles dont happen. Like that lady that should have died, being decapitated..almost...yet she lived to tell the story. Im not religious but I do like to imagine that some things happen without answers.
@@AspenCharmKitchen if your going by that logic then Mr.Reed shouldve died due to the fact he got stabbed in the throat he shouldnt have lived for thatg long to begin with
In the opening scene, Paxton describes the couple making the porno film who get interrupted by banging on the wall and someone yelling “we can hear you”. Paxton said she felt it was a poignant moment when the porn actress made a defiant reply and that she could almost see their souls leaving their bodies from the shame. Fast forward to when Paxton descends the chute to find the body of the “prophet” because she needs to know “the truth”. Reed gazes down on her as she defiantly says “I knew it”. I felt there was a parallel drawn because I think at that moment Paxton knew with 100% certainty what her destiny was. Any hope evaporated for her similarly to how the porn actress resigned herself to her reality. Iterations still.
Keeping it simple.. I feel like this film just tells the story that a part of the population believe we are all being controlled whilst the other part of the population are just simply happy to believe even if they don’t know how deep it goes and that’s ok.
There is a third group who don’t think we’re being controlled and are not happy to just believe-they are called Free Thinkers! Which is where I’ll be if anyone needs me✌🏻😉
The one true religion is choice, not control, and that's what he didn't see. Choice at every point is the engine of life. Choices we make interacting with choices of others, constantly and to infinity. Creating the rules (predefined choices) that govern the options that others have creates power, but they have the choice to reject your premise at every turn. Even if it is the cost of their own demise.
@@TheAmateursOriginalMusic yeah Think about it tho - he couldn’t control her feelings in the last moments. She chose to pray even when facing death. So choice wins since you can always choose how to react to and see a situation, even if forced upon you
Choice or freedom of will is an illusion. You can do what you want, but you can't want what you want. She is praying at the end because she was trained and conditioned to do that by her church in the past. But ultimate control is also just an illusion as we see in this movie. Mr. Reed couldn't control his subjects and made an error in his calculation, that's why he had to die.
@@DEMfilmsJWalsh If God is existing, almighty and knows everything, he already knows your future 'choice', so your free choice is not free any more. It's already written and set. This would make freedom of choice an illusion
The ending reminded me of ‘The Descent’. I think it all depends on whether or not the viewer believes that Sister survived the slash on her throat and managed to conjured the strength to hit and kill Reed. If you believe THAT, everything else afterwards is plausible.
Right. However, Paxton dying and hallucinating the return of her friend just before Reed crawls on top of her, could be seen as a form of escape/innocence preservation. Ie, she resists Reed by picturing her friend instead (as in, this man will not be the last thing I ever see).
The ending is very beautiful when you see that she died and this is a transition to the afterlife and she was not saved and the dialogues are very beautiful in the movie and the moment of the villain’s weakness in his last moments is a beautiful thing because it expresses the extent of his fear of the afterlife because he is ignorant What is happening
The movie made it rather clear. She died, and she is having that near death moment. Its especially clear when the butterfly disappears and the shock on her face.
Yes! I don’t think people noticed the white light behind her when she was walking through the snow. It clicked right when I noticed the light, that she did die.
I interpreted it more as she escaped, but it’s the viewers choice to “believe” or not to believe that the butterfly was real. Is there an afterlife? Was it Barnes visiting her to tell her she’s okay? It was a hallucination? Meaning the whole point of the movie and religion is that it is a choice we have
Mr reed was wrong about every opinion he said. And deceptive. Just how he was wrong about the true religion is control. God saved the girl at the end and she lived.
I watched this movie yesterday in Yuma, and it stuck with me afterward while I went shopping for household goods. Then, in the parking lot, it suddenly struck me that Mr. Reed is a polygamist, which ties in to things he'd said to the two Sisters about their church's history. --
Yeah, I think there's something related there. We don't know what he did with the women in the basement but there are some possible parallels there. Projecting onto Joseph Smith his own tendencies. Create a religion (with the miracle and prophets), subjugate women for own devices.
Right. And he justifies it by saying the women wanted to be prisoners. He compares their situation to Jim Jones' followers (which would make him a Jim Jones!) However, many Jonestown followers did not willingly drink the flavor-ade. They were coerced.
Paxton didn’t die. She was caged like the other women. She became barely alive, malnourished, tortured, brainwashed, mentally unstable like the other victims. She was cold down in Dante’s lowest level of hell (as cold as walking in the snow without winter gear) and wanting so badly to have had the courage to stab her captor and escape, her mind created a realistic scenario/dream/hallucination. Watch for the glitches in her minds matrix. Three obvious clues being no cell reception, the malnourished knobbed fingers, and the butterfly. Not to mention, had elder B survived, it’s more reasonable to conclude she wouldn’t have the strength to stand let alone deliver such an impactful death blow with her excessive blood loss. Mr Reed designed the labrynth house and acquired several victims with whom he easily disposed at will because he was ever confident he could replenish his stock. He does not lose, he is in control no matter which door is chosen or whichever other illusion of choice is presented, every ‘choice’ leads to his predetermined outcome. This movie is a psychological cat and mouse game without the possibility of escape. There’s only one way in and no way out because Mr. Reed literally controls the door.
I agree now that I see the clues. The Monarch butterfly at the end reminded me of the stories I read about few years back about a secret group called 'The Monarch' that mind controlled some people and might still be doing, through torture and brainwashing or hypnosis like Mr.Reed, and they could or still do reprogram the victim's mind and change their whole perception of reality, to be under their control( for sexual or political reasons). Then they could sometimes send some victims back into the world to do sh*t, artificially obedient to commands of the handlers. Lots of reports on internet and a few books on this. They use that butterfly, hexagons(Mr. Reed's house is full of these) and pentagrams and number 6 as some of their symbols for dark reasons. I think this movie's makers knew about this. This movie's ending got more terrifying to me when I understood it this way.
I initially thought that sister paxton did die in the basement and in her last moments she thought she escaped, that butterfly I thought was her signaling to herself that she's dying or dead since she said she wanted to follow the ones she loves and it was a belief of self love My boyfriend thought that she did escape and the butterfly was sister barnes visiting since she liked sister paxton's butterfly sentiment I like both versions
This did have multiple jumpsacres though. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the movie but it definitely had more of a basic hollywood horror feel to it compared to a24s horror movies like midsommar, the witch, men etc. I still enjoyed it though and definitely worth a watch
Here's a nuance people seem to be missing on the ending: Sister Beatrice left that basement with Personal Proof of God. Here's how I see it: God gave a miracle and resurrected Sister Paxton briefly to give her the chance to save her friend, and the moment she does so, her body returns to lifelessness. The butterfly at the end was to underline the miracle, because how else would Sister Paxton (or God) send a recognizable symbol, especially knowing her thoughts on the subject. I think she lived; mountain towns have shitty signal anyway.
Right, sure. But I feel that’s the point of this movie. You said “here’s how I see it” aka what you believed. I believe, as a non- believer, that when he mentioned are you the person looking at a butterfly, or are you the butterfly looking at the person has something to do with it. Maybe she was dying and saw the butterfly, which is what she wanted to come back as, and realized she’s dead.
I have the same theory. Her friend saving her was probably a miracle because she resurrected from the dead for a short time. But in the end are two shots of her hand. One of her POV with the butterfly and one shot from another angle without it. So I think at the end she was hallucinating. She saw what she wanted to see or believe. Maybe because she was dying from the blood loss or because she was traumatized. If you really want to go wild on speculation: Maybe she even killed the guy herself and her mind made her believe it was sister Paxton to protect her and give her faith. So she had a miracle to believe in and didn't had to deal with the guilt of killing a person. She was very averse towards violence, must be hard for her to kill someone with her own hands.
I interpreted the end as she escaped, but it’s up to the viewer to “believe” if the butterfly was real or not. You can choose to believe there’s an afterlife and maybe Barnes was telling her she’s okay by landing on her hand or was it a hallucination and you think it’s a load of 💩? Basically the entire point of the movie.
Interesting, I liked your take in the other comment but not so much this one. Why would Barnes come back as a butterfly when it was Paxton who had that wish? What would be the meaning of the butterfly disappearing in this context?
@@propogandalf well she discussed it with her friend so who’s say we can’t choose what we do in the afterlife? Aren’t there always going to be people looking for signs from a loved one after they pass? It doesn’t necessarily have to be Barnes, but I just believe they left the end ambiguous for the shear reason of leaving it up the viewer to make the choice of what they think happened or not.
@@propogandalf I thought the main argument at the end was supposed to be like “was the butterfly real or not? Did it mean something or not? Like was it in her head or is there an afterlife and this is a sign?” type of thing. But I have also considered that she may have died at the end and is now in some kind of afterlife.
Movie up until the basement scenes was really a psychological thriller and was challenging and interesting. But right after that it went sideways and was playing dumb. Kinda disappointed by the 3 acts and the ending. But the scene with doors and Monopoly Alegy was great and I was agreeing with him on a lot of staff. As an atheist it was intresting to listen cause I had this convos with myself untill decided where I stand. But the girls had all the advantage over him while in the doors room should have cornered him and attack him. They tried this in basement but it was too late at the time. Even opening the door was a mistake
This is why i came HERE. I needed some guidance on what i saw and some help with the meanings. The thing about the trap door is tho, it made a lot of noise when it was opened so we're asked to believe that no one heard that. Thats almost a bridge too for for me. Overall, i liked the thinking aspects of this film. A24 keeping us on our toes.
The ending in the trees was very reminiscent of the sacred grove scene that all Mormons are familiar with. Joseph on his knees praying for knowledge. But sister Paxton is left with no signal and has to go and get help on her own.
I think the descent down the stairs regardless of the door are a symbolic construct from Reed with how the thoughts of going to hell often controls religious beliefs, “You have to pray every day or you’ll go to hell” type of thing.
I do think he makes a good point in the idea that the nature of faith from powerful leaders is control in the context of the long history of violence committed in the name of religion as well as the ideas of what is and is not moral that is entirely dependent on the person interpreting and sharing their interpretation of religious scripture. But faith in and of itself and belief in something beyond life is powerful comfort that helps a lot of people lead fulfilling lives. Both sides of faith and logic are exemplified in a compelling way. What a film.
I loved the film and your analysis. I do wonder about the key though. Since the final red door was locked with the bike lock, how did Mr Reid know to put the key into the ‘wrong’ pocket of sister Paxton’ coat?
Marketing this as a horror film was a misstep IMO. Its totally a psychological thriller.Everyone in this movie is fantastic. And being a movie thats all dialog, I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. I saw this movie yesterday and Im anxious to rewatch it cause I know I missed a lot ...like the Daunte's Inferno reference lol. When it was done, 100% left believing she had died. The butterfly being there one moment and gone the next made me think ,in that brief moment, thats when she passed and was now the butterfly. Maybe she is /maybe not lol..but it was a great ride.
So for me, I found initially thinking and truly thinking about religion as a whole. In the end, we are faced with belief and trust. Is there an afterlife? Only those who have died or those who believe there is life after death. The ending showed me faith. When she began to pray, I want to believe that our creator intervened. The movie signs with Mel Gibson and night Shyamalan movie said it best. Either person who wants to believe that we are not the only ones here alone. There is someone else fighting for us. Or, you’re here believing that we are all alone. Personally, I’ll take the first. I always wanna believe that we are not alone. To sit and think that mankind as a hole is not crooked and greed, I could think of many adjectives, but we include myself. We all can be dark in our own reckoning. Every single one of us. What will you take on your daily walk? Whether that walk is to feed the light in you or is that walk to feed the dark in you this movie definitely many many emotional thoughts. In the end? I am left to my belief. And I believe, there is a creator. Not religion, not mankind, that there is definitely a creator of all things….. Godspeed 🙏
I like a movie that challenges our faith in a higher god. Good Movie. Good ahead and watch Venom if you want . But this movie gets your brain involved.
i know i’m late but i think the ending was a sign from paxton with the butterfly thing..like how in the beginning when he asked paxton if she’d ever gotten a sign from her father i think that was a play from that conversation
From someone on quora: I survived forty minutes with a cut throat and I've read of people surviving hours. It varies based on a variety of factors; were major arteries cut? How deep was the cut? How was the neck and head positioned after? If no major vessels are cut, a person can survive for much longer. My mother cut my throat when I was a toddler. Fortunately, she pushed my head back, meaning the knife missed the most important arteries. I required life saving surgery once ambulance staff found me, and a tube in my throat for 11 years.
In the end all 3 of them died & Paxton dreamed that she made it out & Barnes saved her. Also loved that the film also speaks truth on all world religions how it is CONTROLLING humanity as a whole.
I saw that butterfly disappear, so my immediate thought was “oh shit, the simulation.” Like what if that was his giant attempt at telling her the truth of reality at the table but she just wrote it off. Idk just a thought
I don't think she scaping meant to be the afterlife. It was mentioned when they tell the Taco Bell incident that the brain with lack of oxygen makes people have this kind of experience before dying. My interpretation is that she died and we see this hallucination, that's why the butterfly disappeared and it cuts to black to the credits (death). But the movie presents a couple of possible interpretations, you can think she died or that miraculously Sister Barnes saved her. That's the test for the viewer.
Just saw this and loved it! Perhaps it says something about me but I definitely saw the ending as the dark interpretation and didn’t even consider that it could be seen a different way. Your explanation was very good. I missed the Dante’s inferno reference!
I just watched that movie. When he said step in and see one true religion. There is a pentagram and rad lock on the door same in movie "sinister" where devil lives behind a red door. I think in his mind one true religion was satanism but he didn't say in out loud cause that would be too obvious.
my other thought was that later religions are sort of based on earlier religions (paganism). most of those signs were related to paganism, which wasn't satanism but construed as such by later religions (judaism, christianity, etc.)
@@BreckL I grow up in satanic illuminati cult, when I tell you about red lock/red door I know what I'm talking about. Also the woman who was suppose to be a prophet was demonically possessed. I saw people's eyes go completely black in a real life. It happens after ritual. There's many other things I noticed too.
That sh*t was crazy. @ first, i assumed the sisters just went into Mr. Reed's house because he invited them, not because it began to 🌧. Mr. Reed pointing out that the MAJOR religions have similarities is something i did see coming. i took Intro to Theology in undergrad and it gives you a perspective on how civilizations cycle through different belief systems/traditions. While inside the basement, Sister Barnes started putting pieces together from the puzzle, i was a little stunned. Her theory made sense, but to see that far out is not something i saw coming. i figured Sister Paxton would make it out because she was more "final girl" like with her innocence.
13:50 In the ending with the butterfly… could it be that Paxton is dead (died in the basement while praying and getting stabbed in the neck) and that the buttery fly is still Paxton visiting herself to let her know that she is dead. Paxton is the one that said that if she died she would want to be a butterfly and visit loved ones specifically on their hand or finger whatever it was. I think it’s her telling herself she is dead in butterfly form. I think that part that Barnes killing reed with the spiked plank is an imagination in her afterlife and it never actually happens.
Paxton definitely died and now is a butterfly. I think she is alive and vice versa, or Barnes resurrected for a brief moment as she hears Paxton prayers and saves her and Paxton believes she sees Barnes save her after she had already died thinking she is now alive. Imo both of them died, and since Paxton is more easily manipulated, she is thinking she's alive and well. The injuries make it impossible for both Barnes and Paxton to survive for that long, especially while it's cold.
Has anyone else caught that his name, "Mister Reed," is evocative of "Mysteried." When I was growing up Catholic, every time I asked my very pious grandmother a difficult question about religion, her response was: "It's just a beautiful Mystery."
SPOILER FOR THE DESCENT (2005) I interpreted the ending of this movie the same way I interpreted the ending of The Descent (or at least one of the endings since there’s more than one ending- I’m referring to the one where she drives away and sees Juno in the car with her before she gets “hit”) in that Sister Paxton dies at the end and what you’re seeing is what she’s seeing as she’s entering the afterlife. The main character of The Descent never made it out of the cave, as Sister Paxton didn’t make it out of her “cave” either. However, I didn’t feel that the ending was totally bleak, and even with all the death, there was still a glimmer of hope in my opinion. I saw this movie a few days ago and I’m still thinking about it even now! Definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. Great video!
A lot of the videos and their comments I’ve seen about Heretic talk about how Reed died on her as a means of comfort as he was afraid to die. However in my opinion, He did not, it was one last means of fear and control. He owned the women in the basement and he would’ve owned and tormented her too had she not stabbed him, he was dying on top of her to get one last kick / power buzz - the whole thing he craved when hurting the women. (Edit: hit the interview part, this is so so interesting. I stand corrected by the man himself) Oh and naturally I’m with everyone who thinks Paxton was having a vision as she died of Sister B saving her / offing Reed.m HOWEVER: I need to rewatch the scene where they enter the basement and B places the nail board against the pillar as I could swear Paxton is shown looking at the door and not seeing its placement- if this is the case then it completely folds the NDE/Death vision theory.
She never escaped and praying did not ressurect her friend either, the knife went through her throat and she died. It made this clear with the butterfly at the end disappearing. He made the point with the butterfly dream. Sister died when he stabs her in the neck then she imagined the other girl was resurrected and saved her etc. Everyone died😊
haha everyone’s interpretation of the ending is making me feel stupid. I just assumed the butterfly fly was sister Barnes . Yes, it was sister Paxton’s idea of coming back as one but remember when he mixed them up at the beginning. There has to be a meaning for that right.
Paxton died. Before the butterfly appears on her finger, dead silence occurs. The butterfly appears to herself, signaling that she had died. The butterfly then disappeared. Clearly, it was a sign that Paxton had died from her wound.
What does everyone think of the significance of the house being on a timer? Sure, it's another form of control, but it also suggests that religion controls a person's life more so over time. Everything is on a timer (ie, get baptized at 8, go on a mission at 19, marry at 22, etc). The numbers are just approximations, but in most religions there's a focus on commitments and rituals tied to ages and times. The house timer could symbolize all that Or that Time's Up.
¨Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand-in-hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore no need for faith.¨ conclave
This movie was so greatly executed, the ending was just kinda the only thing I can complain about, it would have made so much more sense if the guy searching for them was the one to deliver the final blow, but come on, her cut her neck, dug her arm out, she should’ve bled out and BEEN dead, other than that I am a fan of this for sure and the authors need to create more masterpieces like such.
I just saw this movie and my experience was one for the books My man proposed to me right before the movie during the trailers and gave me top right there we ain't shy to be ourselves Someone racist ( elderly white couple) complained and we got caught by a ticket collector with one of them flashlights. He shined it right at my mans as he got his mouth full. I be mad embarrassed. When word got out, I got demoted from our south chicago BLM charter to 13th rank bc everyone mad that I'm dating a man who once dated my mom and helped raise me. He be the one who helped me realize I'm a woman stuck in a man's body. My pointbbe this. Don't let white Supremecy force you to hide yo self
i've been hearing about this movie for a long time and i''m gonna watch it when comes out. an intriguing movie. btw elliott, you should do a commentary about apple+ show 'before', with billy crystal and rosie perez. it's a very interesting one. it's right up to your ally. 👍
The things you didn’t address. How did he knew the girl had an implant in her arm? Did he had it already in his hand or was it really in her arm? And at the end the girl escaped through the window but before that she opened the same window on the model of the house.
I met a few nut-jobs like this character in Heretic, on my mission, who had zero interest in learning what we were teaching and only wanted to bash and debate us, completely wasting our time.
The only choice the girls seemingly have while trapped inside Mr. Reed's home is the choice to believe in religious dogmas or not. To embrace faith or reject it. This is represented by the two doors Mr. Reed labels belief and disbelief. When we learn that both doors lead to the same place, we see that the choice was merely an illusion all along. Mr. Reed is a nihilist power luster who wants to use religion for its true purpose, which he believes is to control mankind. In Mr. Reed's home, a microcosm of the real world, built by Mr. Reed himself, he is the all-knowing God. He challenges the very notion of free will by proving that everything that has transpired throughout the course of the movie was predetermined by him and a product of his own grand design. I think refusing Mr. Reed at the end proves that Paxton has free will. I think Sister Barnes regaining consciousness, using the board of wood with the three nails in it that are in the form of a triangle on Mr. Reed's head and the butterfly scene at the end could be viewed in two different ways. Either explained rationally or supernaturally. The supernatural reading is more fun, so I'll give my interpretation of that one. Sister Barnes represents a savoir who dies and is reborn for Sister Paxton. Sacrifice in Christianity is typically represented by Jesus dying on the cross. It's a topic of debate, but many think three nails were used in the crucifixion to nail Jesus to the wooden cross: one in each wrist and one through his feet. The symbol of the cross with three nails is seen as "good's triumph over evil." The plank of wood with the three nails in the shape of a triangle could represent good triumphing over evil as it's used by a resurrected Sister Barnes to kill the anti-christ (Mr. Reed) just before she returns to the afterlife. The nails being in the form of a triangle could also represent the holy trinity (father, son, holy spirit). So the board, in both cases, is a kind of divine weapon used by a sacrificial hero to save the soul of Paxton. The butterfly landing on Paxton's finger is supposed to be Barnes sending Paxton a message that she's in a better place. The other interpretation is that everything had a rational explanation, and there were no miracles at all. Paxton has lost a lot of blood and hallucinates a butterfly landing on her finger.
I think he knew they wouldn't drink them, because he mentions that he "should've" brought them water. It was part of his "control/choice" narrative: he wanted to see *if* they would drink them.
Did anyone think the credit song was, " fade into you" my mazzy star? Just to realize it was a blatant rip off "interation" of knockin on heavens door?
I definitely need to watch this again keep me leaving so uneasy especially with sister Barnes dying I really liked her so much so it hurt seeing her die but she got to save sister Paxton so she went out as a hero I loved that
I found that , he didn't so much "lie" more that suggest and mislead. He did have a wife ( many in fact) And there was a blueberry pie. ( Just not fit for human consumption).
I just left the theater and my husband thought Sister Paxton made it, I felt she didn’t so I’m glad I’m not alone in that interpretation. Aaaaannndd I know I never want to hear that song “all I need is the air that I breathe” ever again.😂
Thank you for your expansive explanation into what really happened in the end with Sr. Paxton. The more I thought about the end the more I was correct. Sr. Paxton ws dead as she made it outside of the house because her wanting to comeback as anthe butterfly
I’m also seeing no one bringing up how the resurrection trick was a play on the resurrection of Jesus and this was a aha moment for the heretic once sister Paxton explained it to him.
Usually horror movies are dumb. Its always about some dumb teenagers running away from a monster/deragned killer/ or supernatural being. BUt this is a rare horror movie that forces you to think. It also forces the character to use intelligence to survive their ordeal
Sister Paxton obviously died as well why would there be lots of snow when there wasn't snowing a night before and the butterfly being there but not and the ending showing her w a confused face
I think his theory of the one true religion of 'control' was actually just worshipping himself as a god. That's why he has all of the satanic stuff in the last basement level of 'hell'. Do as thou wilt is a tenet of satanism, which also brings God back into the equation. I think the more logical conclusion, if all of the religions are so very similar, is that there's something to it; an original iteration, rather than 'it's all BS, and I don't believe in anything'.
haven't seen the film yet...but I often watch spoilers then see the film.... As for this one, I wish I saw the film first. All he narrator's talk of existentialism? philosophy etc. I need to go back to university and get a second degree cause all the big talk lost me... or maybe I shouldn't have picked this one at 4am. yeah, that's it...I'm going to bed.
I LOVED this movie. Best horror movie and really movie period ive seen in a long time. The tension build up was so intense it was almost unbearable 😅 the pacing and everything was perfect 💯🥧😘
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What did you think of the ending of HERETIC and what themes and deeper meanings did you take away from this film?
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Did they bring you blueberry pie in the theater?
@ Yes they did and at first I wasn’t going to eat it because I’m not a blueberry person but I couldn’t resist eating it eventually 😂
Well said and you basically described a lot of the concepts I was thinking about as well. Thank you for that. Very good, psychological thriller. These are the types of horror films that I enjoy.
I just wanted to also add a fun little thing I noticed about the music at the end credits and the concepts of iterations.
The ending titles song was by Sophie Thatcher "Knockin on Heaven's Door" which also has a very similar in tone and musical style as Mazzy Star's "Fade into You." I'm unsure whether or not that was intentional from the filmmakers but just something I noticed.
A very clever film. A superb script. And Hugh Grant - the best performance of his career
I like that its really not introducing anything new. Its all up to you. I interpreted it like this: The final girl (forgot all the names..been a while) was helped AND WITNESSED, as he said was gonna happen...just not how he set it up. She actually witnessed 2 miriacles....the resurrection of her friend to save her life AND that there is an afterlife/reincarnation. BUUUUT, depending on my mood it could change to they all died and that last bit was just her death and she was leaving her body.
One thing everyone is missing. The doors lead to the same thing. Indicating that whether you believe or don’t it leads to the same outcome
Right. Because he was in control of their decisions.
@@Sirlance87 very interesting!!!!!!!
That’s interesting, I took it as the doors might look that way. But I believe that if they went to the unbelief door they would’ve been slaves like the other woman following whatever he wanted. But they had to choose that. He told the girl that the women that were their choose to be there. But because they choose to believe he died and they weren’t slaves to him
@ interesting
Yes, they led to the same place. I believe he knew they would never choose the disbelief door. He purposely got missionaries for a reason. Everything was calculated for him and controlled. He knew mostly what they were going to do next.
He was essentially manipulating them based on his obsessively extensive knowledge of multiple religions. His intelligence was intimidating and believable. I could tell immediately he went through a period of extreme religious studies, which made him scared. Which he points out. The writing was incredible, and I hope for more movies like this. The truly scary thing is what atrocities humanity is capable of.
Control was his religion.. manipulation
Despite how knowledgeable he was deepdown he was still a dangerous psycopath
Finally someone who sees the ending how I did. I feel a lot of people missed the setup and what the movie was trying to say. If you "believe" Barnes somehow survived what she did, you are taking a leap of faith based on everything that was established.
Woah brillianttt
Definitely my thoughts on the ending. I personally believe she didn’t make it out, it really felt like such a lighthearted ending given that it was pretty much impossible to get out.
From someone on quora: I survived forty minutes with a cut throat and I've read of people surviving hours.
It varies based on a variety of factors; were major arteries cut? How deep was the cut? How was the neck and head positioned after?
If no major vessels are cut, a person can survive for much longer.
My mother cut my throat when I was a toddler. Fortunately, she pushed my head back, meaning the knife missed the most important arteries. I required life saving surgery once ambulance staff found me, and a tube in my throat for 11 years.
@@anyagetman8596 That's why I suspended disbelief for that scene, I knew not all throat cuts are immediately lethal, I've heard stories of people getting dismembered or disemboweled, only for them to put their guts back in place and seek aid and survive. I didn't take a leap of faith, I went of real actual events that occurred to people. But I can see how the narrative is pointing towards the conclusion that she died.
@anyagetman8596 Your mother cut your throat? That's horrifying man. Hope you're okay.
Dante's Inferno describes the lowest circle of hell as freezing, explaining the final cellar.
@@leftofyou see why the movie was trash? People find stuff like that "deep and complex" ???
@@konghere it's sad, but yeah. People really see this garbage as smart. Then again, these same people just voted in the dumbest person on the planet and think he's going to "save" them. lmao!
@konghere I think it says a lot about the character of the guy intentionally designing his house that way.
@@kongherei thimk the whole point of the movie is to be deep and complex…..
Dante’s sinners are frozen in ice, I wonder if the surviving girl dies in the snow. Or if the sight of the Monarch has enlightened her.
I just left the theater, this made me feel more uneasy than Longlegs. Amazing monologues and overall conversation. I can’t wait to watch this again
Same here. This movie was more of a mind fk, i loved it!
I left the theater, felt headache and scary. Why people have to trap and harm other like that. Life is hard, and this man with well educated is weird and dangerous.
@@minhhuynh7820 sick ppl
I think the movie did a great job expanding on the question of religion itself. Was the man a psychopath, ofc… but his show and tell for his thought process was valid. Monopoly is a game essentially of control , religion holds power and control as well. Different boards , same game. Different books/same control. It does get thrown off after the basement because he’s staging a miracle, but it’s also to point out that it’s not real. He wanted them to know miracles(religion) are not real only a way of control, he proves this by revealing the “magic trick” he’s a psycho.. no different than our world leaders that use monopoly, religion, political views to control us. It’s testing your beliefs of reality over faith.
The staging of the miracle very much reminded me of how people who believe in Judaism do not believe in the resurrection.
@@rissilient85Very interesting
@@nlmbkeyze1951 he only mentioned claims proving his point, while purposefully leaving out the glaring claims that disprove his points. The girl made it obvious when she told him about the differences between Jesus and horas being that he had a bird head. He was trying to make them not believe by any means, that included lying. He lied the whole entire time, and he also gaslit them, and tried making them feel stupid. Because what would’ve eventually happened once he was completed with them was they would’ve been like the other women that were down there as basically slaves. You can see what he really believes in a brief moment as see some writings that at the end of it had lucifer almost like a tribute to him. His god was control and he wanted to strip them of faith to be their god. But they chose the door of belief, and he ends up crawling on his belly with his mouth open almost looking like he’s trying to eat her, then getting hit with a wooden plank that has nails in it, on his head. Jesus feet had nails in them, almost symbolic to the Bible verse that his heal shall bruise your head.
His argument failed though. His argument was that all religion boils down to absolute control, and that because they bought into it, he could drag them down into that pit of their own will, and enslave them. And to a certain degree he was right. Paxton did go into the pit to see the body. I wouldn't exactly call it free will when there was no other way to go, but she walked down there herself. But the moment she stabbed him in the neck, his argument crumbled. It actually failed before when the false prophet went off his script, but the point is, his control is not absolute. It's just another trick like everything else in his house, and it was broken. But she didn't break his control by rejecting the religious principles he had used to manipulate her, we know that because she continued to pray when she was dying. His experiment proved his thesis wrong. There is more to religion than control. That doesn't make organized religion perfect. But it does make Mr. Reed a lunatic who lived and died for nothing.
@ interesting concept
SPOILERS.
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The basement isn't just a reference to the seven circles of hell, it's the 5th of seven levels.
Paxton did die in the end. But one critical piece of information you didn't mention was Barnes' conversation about her near death experience. What Paxton is experiencing in the end isn't necessarily entering the afterlife, it's a visual representation of her thinking about her butterfly during the final moments before her brain shuts down. They all died in the basement.
Ooh.. one way to interpret! I like it but I think Barnes did “resurrect” because the topic “miracle” was brought up frequently and they didnt really need to zoom in the broken wooden piece with three nails if it was all her imagination
I think that that's what she's experienced via hallucination, but I don't believe it's to ge taken literal. I need to rewatch it, though. Maybe I'll feel difficult afterwards.
I agree with you. The end was an illusion when really they all died in the basement. But even from a logical standpoint (which convinced me) Paxton couldn’t have escaped the basement after being stabbed in the gut, magically found the key, and crawled out the window. Logically she would have died in the basement anyways
@@AspenCharmKitchen BUT... you cant say miracles dont happen. Like that lady that should have died, being decapitated..almost...yet she lived to tell the story. Im not religious but I do like to imagine that some things happen without answers.
@@AspenCharmKitchen if your going by that logic then Mr.Reed shouldve died due to the fact he got stabbed in the throat he shouldnt have lived for thatg long to begin with
Heretic is a movie that you will either click with you or won't. Personally, I really liked the movie, but I admit I don't think it's for everyone.
Agree. Big hit for me too
Def a hit for me.
I took the end as her choosing to still believe in her religion and the butterfly delusion was her seeing a sign from her friend.
In the opening scene, Paxton describes the couple making the porno film who get interrupted by banging on the wall and someone yelling “we can hear you”.
Paxton said she felt it was a poignant moment when the porn actress made a defiant reply and that she could almost see their souls leaving their bodies from the shame.
Fast forward to when Paxton descends the chute to find the body of the “prophet” because she needs to know “the truth”. Reed gazes down on her as she defiantly says “I knew it”.
I felt there was a parallel drawn because I think at that moment Paxton knew with 100% certainty what her destiny was. Any hope evaporated for her similarly to how the porn actress resigned herself to her reality.
Iterations still.
Keeping it simple.. I feel like this film just tells the story that a part of the population believe we are all being controlled whilst the other part of the population are just simply happy to believe even if they don’t know how deep it goes and that’s ok.
There is a third group who don’t think we’re being controlled and are not happy to just believe-they are called Free Thinkers! Which is where I’ll be if anyone needs me✌🏻😉
The one true religion is choice, not control, and that's what he didn't see. Choice at every point is the engine of life. Choices we make interacting with choices of others, constantly and to infinity. Creating the rules (predefined choices) that govern the options that others have creates power, but they have the choice to reject your premise at every turn. Even if it is the cost of their own demise.
Control trumps (pardon the pun!) choice all day long! If you think you chose something you’re being controlled✌🏻😎
@@TheAmateursOriginalMusic yeah
Think about it tho - he couldn’t control her feelings in the last moments.
She chose to pray even when facing death.
So choice wins since you can always choose how to react to and see a situation, even if forced upon you
Choice or freedom of will is an illusion.
You can do what you want, but you can't want what you want.
She is praying at the end because she was trained and conditioned to do that by her church in the past.
But ultimate control is also just an illusion as we see in this movie. Mr. Reed couldn't control his subjects and made an error in his calculation, that's why he had to die.
God created choice, the devil uses control. Go figure
@@DEMfilmsJWalsh
If God is existing, almighty and knows everything, he already knows your future 'choice', so your free choice is not free any more. It's already written and set. This would make freedom of choice an illusion
The ending reminded me of ‘The Descent’. I think it all depends on whether or not the viewer believes that Sister survived the slash on her throat and managed to conjured the strength to hit and kill Reed. If you believe THAT, everything else afterwards is plausible.
The descent ending is exactly what I thought of right away, and what made me think she didn’t make it out
Right. However, Paxton dying and hallucinating the return of her friend just before Reed crawls on top of her, could be seen as a form of escape/innocence preservation. Ie, she resists Reed by picturing her friend instead (as in, this man will not be the last thing I ever see).
The ending is very beautiful when you see that she died and this is a transition to the afterlife and she was not saved and the dialogues are very beautiful in the movie and the moment of the villain’s weakness in his last moments is a beautiful thing because it expresses the extent of his fear of the afterlife because he is ignorant What is happening
The movie made it rather clear. She died, and she is having that near death moment. Its especially clear when the butterfly disappears and the shock on her face.
I said that in the video.
Yes! I don’t think people noticed the white light behind her when she was walking through the snow. It clicked right when I noticed the light, that she did die.
I interpreted it more as she escaped, but it’s the viewers choice to “believe” or not to believe that the butterfly was real. Is there an afterlife? Was it Barnes visiting her to tell her she’s okay? It was a hallucination? Meaning the whole point of the movie and religion is that it is a choice we have
@@xotennisxgirloxWell said!
Mr reed was wrong about every opinion he said. And deceptive. Just how he was wrong about the true religion is control. God saved the girl at the end and she lived.
I watched this movie yesterday in Yuma, and it stuck with me afterward while I went shopping for household goods. Then, in the parking lot, it suddenly struck me that Mr. Reed is a polygamist, which ties in to things he'd said to the two Sisters about their church's history.
--
Huh? Could you elaborate on this?
He has a basement full of caged female followers@@propogandalf
Yeah, I think there's something related there. We don't know what he did with the women in the basement but there are some possible parallels there. Projecting onto Joseph Smith his own tendencies. Create a religion (with the miracle and prophets), subjugate women for own devices.
The Hubby cups
Right. And he justifies it by saying the women wanted to be prisoners. He compares their situation to Jim Jones' followers (which would make him a Jim Jones!) However, many Jonestown followers did not willingly drink the flavor-ade. They were coerced.
Paxton didn’t die. She was caged like the other women. She became barely alive, malnourished, tortured, brainwashed, mentally unstable like the other victims. She was cold down in Dante’s lowest level of hell (as cold as walking in the snow without winter gear) and wanting so badly to have had the courage to stab her captor and escape, her mind created a realistic scenario/dream/hallucination. Watch for the glitches in her minds matrix. Three obvious clues being no cell reception, the malnourished knobbed fingers, and the butterfly. Not to mention, had elder B survived, it’s more reasonable to conclude she wouldn’t have the strength to stand let alone deliver such an impactful death blow with her excessive blood loss.
Mr Reed designed the labrynth house and acquired several victims with whom he easily disposed at will because he was ever confident he could replenish his stock. He does not lose, he is in control no matter which door is chosen or whichever other illusion of choice is presented, every ‘choice’ leads to his predetermined outcome.
This movie is a psychological cat and mouse game without the possibility of escape. There’s only one way in and no way out because Mr. Reed literally controls the door.
I take it the same way the girls were done for as soon as they agreed to come into his house
@@ronburgundy3172"agreed" based on a lack of information... Just like when people accept a faith as kids or newcomers without being informed
I agree now that I see the clues. The Monarch butterfly at the end reminded me of the stories I read about few years back about a secret group called 'The Monarch' that mind controlled some people and might still be doing, through torture and brainwashing or hypnosis like Mr.Reed, and they could or still do reprogram the victim's mind and change their whole perception of reality, to be under their control( for sexual or political reasons). Then they could sometimes send some victims back into the world to do sh*t, artificially obedient to commands of the handlers. Lots of reports on internet and a few books on this. They use that butterfly, hexagons(Mr. Reed's house is full of these) and pentagrams and number 6 as some of their symbols for dark reasons. I think this movie's makers knew about this. This movie's ending got more terrifying to me when I understood it this way.
The malnourished hand at the end was really strange and is a strong argument for your hypothesis.
I initially thought that sister paxton did die in the basement and in her last moments she thought she escaped, that butterfly I thought was her signaling to herself that she's dying or dead since she said she wanted to follow the ones she loves and it was a belief of self love
My boyfriend thought that she did escape and the butterfly was sister barnes visiting since she liked sister paxton's butterfly sentiment
I like both versions
The theory that she escaped vanishes as quick as the butterfly on her hand though. Most likely didn't make it :/
By the way, Reed always manipulates the light. He is Lucifer, the "lightbringer".
If you are expecting jump scares you will be disappointed.
Good ….im tired of lame movies like that …this movie was amazing
I was hoping for no jump scares at all they usually make horror movies rely on them
This did have multiple jumpsacres though. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the movie but it definitely had more of a basic hollywood horror feel to it compared to a24s horror movies like midsommar, the witch, men etc. I still enjoyed it though and definitely worth a watch
@ no jump scares for me tbh maybe cause i dont get scared easily 😂
Did you use your brain at least
Here's a nuance people seem to be missing on the ending: Sister Beatrice left that basement with Personal Proof of God. Here's how I see it: God gave a miracle and resurrected Sister Paxton briefly to give her the chance to save her friend, and the moment she does so, her body returns to lifelessness. The butterfly at the end was to underline the miracle, because how else would Sister Paxton (or God) send a recognizable symbol, especially knowing her thoughts on the subject. I think she lived; mountain towns have shitty signal anyway.
Right, sure. But I feel that’s the point of this movie. You said “here’s how I see it” aka what you believed. I believe, as a non- believer, that when he mentioned are you the person looking at a butterfly, or are you the butterfly looking at the person has something to do with it. Maybe she was dying and saw the butterfly, which is what she wanted to come back as, and realized she’s dead.
I have the same theory.
Her friend saving her was probably a miracle because she resurrected from the dead for a short time. But in the end are two shots of her hand. One of her POV with the butterfly and one shot from another angle without it.
So I think at the end she was hallucinating. She saw what she wanted to see or believe. Maybe because she was dying from the blood loss or because she was traumatized.
If you really want to go wild on speculation:
Maybe she even killed the guy herself and her mind made her believe it was sister Paxton to protect her and give her faith.
So she had a miracle to believe in and didn't had to deal with the guilt of killing a person. She was very averse towards violence, must be hard for her to kill someone with her own hands.
@ I like the way you think
I interpreted the end as she escaped, but it’s up to the viewer to “believe” if the butterfly was real or not. You can choose to believe there’s an afterlife and maybe Barnes was telling her she’s okay by landing on her hand or was it a hallucination and you think it’s a load of 💩? Basically the entire point of the movie.
Interesting, I liked your take in the other comment but not so much this one. Why would Barnes come back as a butterfly when it was Paxton who had that wish? What would be the meaning of the butterfly disappearing in this context?
@@propogandalf well she discussed it with her friend so who’s say we can’t choose what we do in the afterlife? Aren’t there always going to be people looking for signs from a loved one after they pass? It doesn’t necessarily have to be Barnes, but I just believe they left the end ambiguous for the shear reason of leaving it up the viewer to make the choice of what they think happened or not.
@@propogandalf I thought the main argument at the end was supposed to be like “was the butterfly real or not? Did it mean something or not? Like was it in her head or is there an afterlife and this is a sign?” type of thing. But I have also considered that she may have died at the end and is now in some kind of afterlife.
Movie up until the basement scenes was really a psychological thriller and was challenging and interesting. But right after that it went sideways and was playing dumb. Kinda disappointed by the 3 acts and the ending. But the scene with doors and Monopoly Alegy was great and I was agreeing with him on a lot of staff. As an atheist it was intresting to listen cause I had this convos with myself untill decided where I stand. But the girls had all the advantage over him while in the doors room should have cornered him and attack him. They tried this in basement but it was too late at the time. Even opening the door was a mistake
This is why i came HERE. I needed some guidance on what i saw and some help with the meanings. The thing about the trap door is tho, it made a lot of noise when it was opened so we're asked to believe that no one heard that. Thats almost a bridge too for for me. Overall, i liked the thinking aspects of this film. A24 keeping us on our toes.
the loud door opening and closing AND the thud of the body falling
The ending in the trees was very reminiscent of the sacred grove scene that all Mormons are familiar with. Joseph on his knees praying for knowledge. But sister Paxton is left with no signal and has to go and get help on her own.
I feel like the house paralleled with the Mormon temple.
I think the descent down the stairs regardless of the door are a symbolic construct from Reed with how the thoughts of going to hell often controls religious beliefs, “You have to pray every day or you’ll go to hell” type of thing.
She's dead in the end. She wanted to be a butterfly landing on the hand. There's are no butterflies in the winter. Nowhere, ever. She's dead
I do think he makes a good point in the idea that the nature of faith from powerful leaders is control in the context of the long history of violence committed in the name of religion as well as the ideas of what is and is not moral that is entirely dependent on the person interpreting and sharing their interpretation of religious scripture.
But faith in and of itself and belief in something beyond life is powerful comfort that helps a lot of people lead fulfilling lives. Both sides of faith and logic are exemplified in a compelling way. What a film.
I loved the film and your analysis. I do wonder about the key though. Since the final red door was locked with the bike lock, how did Mr Reid know to put the key into the ‘wrong’ pocket of sister Paxton’ coat?
Marketing this as a horror film was a misstep IMO. Its totally a psychological thriller.Everyone in this movie is fantastic. And being a movie thats all dialog, I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through.
I saw this movie yesterday and Im anxious to rewatch it cause I know I missed a lot ...like the Daunte's Inferno reference lol. When it was done, 100% left believing she had died. The butterfly being there one moment and gone the next made me think ,in that brief moment, thats when she passed and was now the butterfly.
Maybe she is /maybe not lol..but it was a great ride.
A lot of new "horror" films lean more on psycho thriller and I wonder if they just stick the horror tag onto everything for marketing purposes?
@@akirashope6198 Yeah... Im thinking that might be true. Several movies this year were labeled horror but leaned more thriller.
Hugh Grant was outstanding. This will go down as one of his greatest roles. Genuinely creepy, thought provoking movie. Loved it.
Je suis ok avec vous.
C'est la meilleure performance qu'il a fait de toute sa carrière( à mon avis).
I just thought the butterfly was the other sister in the afterlife letting her know she is there in the afterlife.
It was, and it also wasn't.
@@CartographerOfChaosSchrödinger’s butterfly 🦋
then wouldn't it have been real and not an illusion
@@kingmack-w6p To answer that question, you have to ask, What is real?
So for me, I found initially thinking and truly thinking about religion as a whole. In the end, we are faced with belief and trust. Is there an afterlife? Only those who have died or those who believe there is life after death. The ending showed me faith. When she began to pray, I want to believe that our creator intervened. The movie signs with Mel Gibson and night Shyamalan movie said it best. Either person who wants to believe that we are not the only ones here alone. There is someone else fighting for us. Or, you’re here believing that we are all alone. Personally, I’ll take the first. I always wanna believe that we are not alone. To sit and think that mankind as a hole is not crooked and greed, I could think of many adjectives, but we include myself. We all can be dark in our own reckoning. Every single one of us. What will you take on your daily walk? Whether that walk is to feed the light in you or is that walk to feed the dark in you this movie definitely many many emotional thoughts. In the end? I am left to my belief. And I believe, there is a creator. Not religion, not mankind, that there is definitely a creator of all things….. Godspeed 🙏
I like a movie that challenges our faith in a higher god. Good Movie. Good ahead and watch Venom if you want . But this movie gets your brain involved.
Ikr. Movie had me thinking the whole time
i know i’m late but i think the ending was a sign from paxton with the butterfly thing..like how in the beginning when he asked paxton if she’d ever gotten a sign from her father i think that was a play from that conversation
Did no one else see both the statue in the hallway and the one underneath the veil move? Why would the movie focus on both statues to begin with?
From someone on quora: I survived forty minutes with a cut throat and I've read of people surviving hours.
It varies based on a variety of factors; were major arteries cut? How deep was the cut? How was the neck and head positioned after?
If no major vessels are cut, a person can survive for much longer.
My mother cut my throat when I was a toddler. Fortunately, she pushed my head back, meaning the knife missed the most important arteries. I required life saving surgery once ambulance staff found me, and a tube in my throat for 11 years.
In the end all 3 of them died & Paxton dreamed that she made it out & Barnes saved her. Also loved that the film also speaks truth on all world religions how it is CONTROLLING humanity as a whole.
I saw that butterfly disappear, so my immediate thought was “oh shit, the simulation.” Like what if that was his giant attempt at telling her the truth of reality at the table but she just wrote it off. Idk just a thought
I don't think she scaping meant to be the afterlife. It was mentioned when they tell the Taco Bell incident that the brain with lack of oxygen makes people have this kind of experience before dying. My interpretation is that she died and we see this hallucination, that's why the butterfly disappeared and it cuts to black to the credits (death). But the movie presents a couple of possible interpretations, you can think she died or that miraculously Sister Barnes saved her. That's the test for the viewer.
Just saw this and loved it! Perhaps it says something about me but I definitely saw the ending as the dark interpretation and didn’t even consider that it could be seen a different way. Your explanation was very good. I missed the Dante’s inferno reference!
Glad you enjoyed it and appreciate you checking out my breakdown.
I just watched that movie. When he said step in and see one true religion. There is a pentagram and rad lock on the door same in movie "sinister" where devil lives behind a red door. I think in his mind one true religion was satanism but he didn't say in out loud cause that would be too obvious.
my other thought was that later religions are sort of based on earlier religions (paganism). most of those signs were related to paganism, which wasn't satanism but construed as such by later religions (judaism, christianity, etc.)
@@BreckL I grow up in satanic illuminati cult, when I tell you about red lock/red door I know what I'm talking about. Also the woman who was suppose to be a prophet was demonically possessed. I saw people's eyes go completely black in a real life. It happens after ritual. There's many other things I noticed too.
That's what I thought when he said it the first time.
I'm interested to see how Reed got his first few victims without the "prophet" facade
They simply had to walk in the front door.
I thought the main meaning of the film is to think for yourselves. Religions do not give us real ways to live.
That sh*t was crazy. @ first, i assumed the sisters just went into Mr. Reed's house because he invited them, not because it began to 🌧. Mr. Reed pointing out that the MAJOR religions have similarities is something i did see coming. i took Intro to Theology in undergrad and it gives you a perspective on how civilizations cycle through different belief systems/traditions. While inside the basement, Sister Barnes started putting pieces together from the puzzle, i was a little stunned. Her theory made sense, but to see that far out is not something i saw coming. i figured Sister Paxton would make it out because she was more "final girl" like with her innocence.
13:50 In the ending with the butterfly… could it be that Paxton is dead (died in the basement while praying and getting stabbed in the neck) and that the buttery fly is still Paxton visiting herself to let her know that she is dead.
Paxton is the one that said that if she died she would want to be a butterfly and visit loved ones specifically on their hand or finger whatever it was. I think it’s her telling herself she is dead in butterfly form.
I think that part that Barnes killing reed with the spiked plank is an imagination in her afterlife and it never actually happens.
Paxton definitely died and now is a butterfly. I think she is alive and vice versa, or Barnes resurrected for a brief moment as she hears Paxton prayers and saves her and Paxton believes she sees Barnes save her after she had already died thinking she is now alive. Imo both of them died, and since Paxton is more easily manipulated, she is thinking she's alive and well. The injuries make it impossible for both Barnes and Paxton to survive for that long, especially while it's cold.
Has anyone else caught that his name, "Mister Reed," is evocative of "Mysteried." When I was growing up Catholic, every time I asked my very pious grandmother a difficult question about religion, her response was: "It's just a beautiful Mystery."
SPOILER FOR THE DESCENT (2005)
I interpreted the ending of this movie the same way I interpreted the ending of The Descent (or at least one of the endings since there’s more than one ending- I’m referring to the one where she drives away and sees Juno in the car with her before she gets “hit”) in that Sister Paxton dies at the end and what you’re seeing is what she’s seeing as she’s entering the afterlife. The main character of The Descent never made it out of the cave, as Sister Paxton didn’t make it out of her “cave” either. However, I didn’t feel that the ending was totally bleak, and even with all the death, there was still a glimmer of hope in my opinion. I saw this movie a few days ago and I’m still thinking about it even now! Definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. Great video!
A lot of the videos and their comments I’ve seen about Heretic talk about how Reed died on her as a means of comfort as he was afraid to die. However in my opinion, He did not, it was one last means of fear and control. He owned the women in the basement and he would’ve owned and tormented her too had she not stabbed him, he was dying on top of her to get one last kick / power buzz - the whole thing he craved when hurting the women. (Edit: hit the interview part, this is so so interesting. I stand corrected by the man himself)
Oh and naturally I’m with everyone who thinks Paxton was having a vision as she died of Sister B saving her / offing Reed.m
HOWEVER: I need to rewatch the scene where they enter the basement and B places the nail board against the pillar as I could swear Paxton is shown looking at the door and not seeing its placement- if this is the case then it completely folds the NDE/Death vision theory.
She never escaped and praying did not ressurect her friend either, the knife went through her throat and she died. It made this clear with the butterfly at the end disappearing. He made the point with the butterfly dream. Sister died when he stabs her in the neck then she imagined the other girl was resurrected and saved her etc. Everyone died😊
haha everyone’s interpretation of the ending is making me feel stupid. I just assumed the butterfly fly was sister Barnes . Yes, it was sister Paxton’s idea of coming back as one but remember when he mixed them up at the beginning. There has to be a meaning for that right.
I thought that too
It could be. Or it could be all in her head.
Open to interpretation to the viewer.
It was an illusion created through her faith.
Thanks man loved this movie and really appreciated the thoughtful video to sum it up. Helps the core themes resonate.
Paxton died. Before the butterfly appears on her finger, dead silence occurs. The butterfly appears to herself, signaling that she had died. The butterfly then disappeared. Clearly, it was a sign that Paxton had died from her wound.
What does everyone think of the significance of the house being on a timer? Sure, it's another form of control, but it also suggests that religion controls a person's life more so over time. Everything is on a timer (ie, get baptized at 8, go on a mission at 19, marry at 22, etc). The numbers are just approximations, but in most religions there's a focus on commitments and rituals tied to ages and times. The house timer could symbolize all that
Or that Time's Up.
¨Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand-in-hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore no need for faith.¨ conclave
This movie was so greatly executed, the ending was just kinda the only thing I can complain about, it would have made so much more sense if the guy searching for them was the one to deliver the final blow, but come on, her cut her neck, dug her arm out, she should’ve bled out and BEEN dead, other than that I am a fan of this for sure and the authors need to create more masterpieces like such.
Id like to know the significance of the hubby mug AND the hubby tumbler! Both blue with white writing. It has to mean something
I just saw this movie and my experience was one for the books
My man proposed to me right before the movie during the trailers and gave me top right there we ain't shy to be ourselves
Someone racist ( elderly white couple) complained and we got caught by a ticket collector with one of them flashlights. He shined it right at my mans as he got his mouth full. I be mad embarrassed.
When word got out, I got demoted from our south chicago BLM charter to 13th rank bc everyone mad that I'm dating a man who once dated my mom and helped raise me. He be the one who helped me realize I'm a woman stuck in a man's body.
My pointbbe this. Don't let white Supremecy force you to hide yo self
i've been hearing about this movie for a long time and i''m gonna watch it when comes out.
an intriguing movie.
btw elliott, you should do a commentary about apple+ show 'before', with billy crystal and rosie perez.
it's a very interesting one. it's right up to your ally. 👍
The things you didn’t address. How did he knew the girl had an implant in her arm? Did he had it already in his hand or was it really in her arm?
And at the end the girl escaped through the window but before that she opened the same window on the model of the house.
I met a few nut-jobs like this character in Heretic, on my mission, who had zero interest in learning what we were teaching and only wanted to bash and debate us, completely wasting our time.
The only choice the girls seemingly have while trapped inside Mr. Reed's home is the choice to believe in religious dogmas or not. To embrace faith or reject it. This is represented by the two doors Mr. Reed labels belief and disbelief. When we learn that both doors lead to the same place, we see that the choice was merely an illusion all along.
Mr. Reed is a nihilist power luster who wants to use religion for its true purpose, which he believes is to control mankind. In Mr. Reed's home, a microcosm of the real world, built by Mr. Reed himself, he is the all-knowing God. He challenges the very notion of free will by proving that everything that has transpired throughout the course of the movie was predetermined by him and a product of his own grand design.
I think refusing Mr. Reed at the end proves that Paxton has free will.
I think Sister Barnes regaining consciousness, using the board of wood with the three nails in it that are in the form of a triangle on Mr. Reed's head and the butterfly scene at the end could be viewed in two different ways. Either explained rationally or supernaturally.
The supernatural reading is more fun, so I'll give my interpretation of that one. Sister Barnes represents a savoir who dies and is reborn for Sister Paxton. Sacrifice in Christianity is typically represented by Jesus dying on the cross. It's a topic of debate, but many think three nails were used in the crucifixion to nail Jesus to the wooden cross: one in each wrist and one through his feet. The symbol of the cross with three nails is seen as "good's triumph over evil."
The plank of wood with the three nails in the shape of a triangle could represent good triumphing over evil as it's used by a resurrected Sister Barnes to kill the anti-christ (Mr. Reed) just before she returns to the afterlife. The nails being in the form of a triangle could also represent the holy trinity (father, son, holy spirit). So the board, in both cases, is a kind of divine weapon used by a sacrificial hero to save the soul of Paxton.
The butterfly landing on Paxton's finger is supposed to be Barnes sending Paxton a message that she's in a better place.
The other interpretation is that everything had a rational explanation, and there were no miracles at all. Paxton has lost a lot of blood and hallucinates a butterfly landing on her finger.
To me she did escape but because she lost a lot of blood, she started hallucinating the butterfly at the end.
I was just wondering what was in the cokes he offered- it seemed like they were supposed to drink it😬
I think he knew they wouldn't drink them, because he mentions that he "should've" brought them water. It was part of his "control/choice" narrative: he wanted to see *if* they would drink them.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie! 9/10!
Liked your take on this film
I hope they’re not setting expectations too high
movie is so good. Brings up good points. Should have my pastor uncle and his kids watch this. LOL
Did anyone think the credit song was, " fade into you" my mazzy star? Just to realize it was a blatant rip off "interation" of knockin on heavens door?
I definitely need to watch this again keep me leaving so uneasy especially with sister Barnes dying I really liked her so much so it hurt seeing her die but she got to save sister Paxton so she went out as a hero I loved that
I found that , he didn't so much "lie" more that suggest and mislead.
He did have a wife ( many in fact)
And there was a blueberry pie.
( Just not fit for human consumption).
I just left the theater and my husband thought Sister Paxton made it, I felt she didn’t so I’m glad I’m not alone in that interpretation. Aaaaannndd I know I never want to hear that song “all I need is the air that I breathe” ever again.😂
Thank you for your expansive explanation into what really happened in the end with Sr. Paxton. The more I thought about the end the more I was correct. Sr. Paxton ws dead as she made it outside of the house because her wanting to comeback as anthe butterfly
I think the butterfly represents Joey Smith's golden tablets. They didn't exist in the first place...
Just left the theater 5min ago and i liked it. it’s definitely one i have to rewatch and analyze to love. thankyou for this video 🎉
I really appreciate your analysis!
Thank you for watching and I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I’m also seeing no one bringing up how the resurrection trick was a play on the resurrection of Jesus and this was a aha moment for the heretic once sister Paxton explained it to him.
Hugh Grant knocked this out of the park. I loved it in theaters 💙
Usually horror movies are dumb. Its always about some dumb teenagers running away from a monster/deragned killer/ or supernatural being. BUt this is a rare horror movie that forces you to think. It also forces the character to use intelligence to survive their ordeal
Loved this film
This is going to make a lot if new atheist
4:33 Three; the symbolism of the holy trinity.
Symbolism is littered throughout the film.
It was a good movie but it tried a little too hard to be cerebral just like the guy doing his explanation.
This is an intelliegent film.
Sister Paxton obviously died as well why would there be lots of snow when there wasn't snowing a night before and the butterfly being there but not and the ending showing her w a confused face
I think his theory of the one true religion of 'control' was actually just worshipping himself as a god. That's why he has all of the satanic stuff in the last basement level of 'hell'. Do as thou wilt is a tenet of satanism, which also brings God back into the equation. I think the more logical conclusion, if all of the religions are so very similar, is that there's something to it; an original iteration, rather than 'it's all BS, and I don't believe in anything'.
This comment section is so cool, so many different outlooks and stuff I missed, shall I watch for a 3rd time LOL
haven't seen the film yet...but I often watch spoilers then see the film.... As for this one, I wish I saw the film first. All he narrator's talk of existentialism? philosophy etc. I need to go back to university and get a second degree cause all the big talk lost me... or maybe I shouldn't have picked this one at 4am. yeah, that's it...I'm going to bed.
Haha, maybe watch it before you see the ending!
@@MovieFiles this☝🏾
Mention spéciale pour l’interprétation de Sophie Tatcher qui m’a transcendée
I want to see the movie! Not the explanation! Where is the movie shown? Is it only in the theater? Probably.😢
I know an atheist wrote this movie. Ive been studying this shit for 20 years. What a great movie
8:55 !!! That’s her real hand??? That’s some freaky bony hand then!
How did the other girl manage to stay alive and kill that man?
@@DD75666 I talk about it in the video.
The movie was good for about 3/4 of it.The ending while not boring is a mess.It didn't have to be a horror movie.
I LOVED this movie. Best horror movie and really movie period ive seen in a long time. The tension build up was so intense it was almost unbearable 😅 the pacing and everything was perfect 💯🥧😘
Really enjoyed this movie. I have always been critical of religion, so this hit for me!
When I saw this I noticed her getting more signal bars on her phone as soon as she got outside..........weird.
u weren’t paying attention , the house has metal in the walls and ceiling like he said , which is why she couldn’t get service
@@erisrice9193In his review he says the phone had no service outside
i LOVED THIS FUKN GRAT PERFORMACEOUTSTANDING BUT HE WASNUTS ABD THE SECOND GIRL HAVING LIVED AND FIRST GIRL TURNING INTO ABUTTERFLY AS A MORACLE