Warning: This put up incorporates spoilers for Heretic.

When two younger Mormon missionaries discover themselves locked in a menacing battle of wills with a suave however sinister stranger, the tenets of their religion are examined as they struggle to make it out of his maze of a prison-house alive.

Within the opening minutes of Heretic, now in theaters, Sister Paxton (The Fabelmans‘ Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Yellowjackets‘ Sophie Thatcher) settle for an invite to enter the house of a seemingly kindly older man named Mr. Reed (a diabolically charming Hugh Grant), who tells them his spouse is busy within the kitchen baking a blueberry pie. Nonetheless, they regularly come to understand that not solely is there no spouse, however their host has one thing rather more sinister in thoughts for his or her go to than studying concerning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Within the means of Mr. Reed forcing them to hearken to a prolonged condemnation of each main faith that exists and demanding that they make an ostensibly life-or-death selection between perception and disbelief, the women start to grasp they will must beat their captor at his personal recreation if they’ve any hope of escape.

To East, who grew up within the LDS religion however is now not working towards, the draw of Heretic is that there is not a singularly right technique to view the puzzle-box movie. “Relying on the way you had been raised, everybody has a distinct perspective on the film and what it means,” she tells TIME in an interview. “I am at all times interested in what individuals’s takes are. I’ve a number of Mormon pals who’re excited to see it. Some have already and like it for very particular causes. After which I do know individuals who aren’t spiritual in any respect who suppose it is nice however in a totally totally different manner.”

Faith and Radiohead

Because the thriller unfolds, filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who co-wrote and created the story for the 2018 horror blockbuster A Quiet Place, take viewers down a rabbit gap of hypocrisy. Whereas Mr. Reed convincingly dismantles the theology of spiritual devotees like Paxton and Barnes, his case is hamstrung by the truth that he is a self-aggrandizing fanatical zealot in terms of his personal beliefs. It is a premise that East initially wasn’t positive she may get behind.

“There have been some issues I used to be afraid of,” she says. “After I first obtained the audition and I learn the two-sentence logline, I felt like, oh, I do not know if I can do that as a result of it is in all probability a one-sided spiritual assertion. However then after studying the script, I spotted it was extra of an open dialogue that had this equal, reverse argument.”

Ultimately, Barnes, the extra grounded and steely of the 2, convinces the sweet-natured and fewer worldly Paxton that they need to stay agency of their religion and descend by way of the “Perception” door fairly than selecting “Disbelief” and caving to Mr. Reed’s tirade—an argument that entails popular culture references starting from Monopoly to Radiohead to Jar Jar Binks. By this level, it is turning into more and more clear the pair is extra intellectually geared up to carry their very own with their tormenter than he might have anticipated.

“This function felt very spot on for rising up Mormon and having these very deep Mormon roots and understanding Mormon tradition,” East says of what made her need the half. “It is not one thing I needed to analysis or be taught. I used to be like, I lived this. This was my childhood. These are my pals. I do know this character greater than anybody.”

The butterfly dream

With the women trapped in his selfmade hell of a basement, Mr. Reed proceeds to ship in a sickly and disfigured lady whom he claims is a prophet, and makes Paxton and Barnes watch as she eats a poison pie and dies. Following a quick distraction that attracts them again up the steps to the basement door, the women return downstairs and witness the lady seemingly rise from the useless and recite a prophecy to them.

Nonetheless, Paxton particularly has begun to catch on to Mr. Reed’s recreation and realizes the lady who was supposedly resurrected was truly a distinct lady who switched locations with the corpse utilizing a entice door. After Mr. Reed stabs Barnes and Paxton places collectively the complete fact of his death-and-resurrection charade, Paxton willingly descends even deeper into the bowels of the home to show that she’s right about what Mr. Reed’s one true faith is: management.

Upon discovering 10 or so malnourished and freezing girls locked in cages, Paxton deduces that every little thing Mr. Reed did from the second she and Barnes arrived on the home was designed to show he may manipulate her into doing precisely what he wished—simply as he did to his different prisoners. Besides, he does not account for her repurposing the letter opener the women discovered within the unique two-doors room to stab him within the neck.

Sadly, as soon as Paxton makes it again into the room the place Barnes’ physique is, an injured Mr. Reed reappears and stabs Paxton within the abdomen. However earlier than he can ship the killing blow, a beforehand seemingly deceased Barnes launches as much as drive a nailed board into his cranium, saving Paxton. Barnes drops again to the ground useless and Paxton makes her manner up into the higher ranges of the home to flee by way of a window.

Outdoors within the snow, Paxton appears at her hand and sees a butterfly perched on her fingertip. Then, a fast digicam minimize and the butterfly vanishes, making it appear as if she’s imagining it. This scene harkens again to 2 earlier moments within the movie—when Paxton mentioned she’d wish to be resurrected as a butterfly so she may land on her family members’ fingers and allow them to comprehend it was her, and when Mr. Reed made reference to Daoist thinker Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream, a philosophical parable concerning the nature of actuality. It is a finale that, for higher or worse, relying in your views on ambiguity, could be interpreted in a wide range of methods.

“Everybody who watches it has a distinct expertise,” East says. “I’ve seen the film like 4 or 5 occasions now and my ideas on the ending are at all times evolving and altering. There are such a lot of polarizing opinions on it and I do not suppose there is a proper or fallacious reply.”

Did Barnes merely use her final reserves of power to kill Mr. Reed and a weakened Paxton hallucinated the butterfly? Was Barnes’ last-minute interference a miracle of divine intervention and she or he was then reborn because the butterfly? Is Paxton truly useless and experiencing the afterlife as described by the supposed prophet earlier within the movie?

As with all questions of religion, you are going to need to determine for your self.