Yes, 6 out of 10. It's two missionaries stuck in a house with a man who wants to debate.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
6 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
Expect it to follow you around for a night, mostly in basements.
DOG
Dog: fine
none, because there are no dogs in this one.
Ruling: Fine for a brave evening, though you may never trust a blueberry pie candle again.
Heretic runs one hour and fifty-one minutes. Two missionaries knock on the wrong door in Boulder, and the man who answers has studied theology for decades and has a lot of questions. The front door is on a timer.
The premise, briefly
Two young missionaries are invited into the home of a friendly Mr. Reed, who says his wife is baking a pie, and they find out the door will not open until he says so.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Reed kills Barnes and wounds Paxton, but Barnes comes back and kills Reed with a plank of nails before she dies. Paxton climbs out through a vent, and a butterfly lands on her hand and vanishes.
The scene you're dreading
Reed cuts Barnes's throat in the basement, in the middle of the movie, right after she signals Paxton to attack him. Barnes bleeds heavily, and she does not stay dead.
The dog
No dog dies in Heretic, because there are no dogs in it.
It is a talky, tense thriller about faith and control, with a couple of jump scares and one violent scene you can brace for.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A candle pretending to be a pie
In Boulder, Colorado, two missionaries, nineteen-year-old Sister Paxton and twenty-year-old Sister Barnes, arrive at the home of Mr. Reed. They tell him they can only come inside if a woman is present, and Reed says his wife is in the kitchen baking blueberry pie. They sit down and talk about religion, and Paxton says that once she is dead she hopes to visit the people she loves as a butterfly landing on their hands. Reed reveals he has studied theology for decades and makes some uncomfortable remarks about their faith. When he steps out to speak to his wife, Barnes realizes the pie smell is coming from a scented candle. They try to leave, but the front door is locked, and Reed explains it is on a timer. Back at the church, Elder Kennedy notices the two are two hours late and goes looking for them.
Reed offers the women two doors to leave through: one for people who believe in God and one for people who do not. Before they choose, he delivers a lecture claiming every religion is a rework of an older one, and he lines up the birth of Jesus with Mithras, Horus and Krishna. Barnes rejects his claims, and the women go through the Belief door, only to find that both doors open onto one basement. Down there an elderly, frail woman shows up, eats a poisoned pie and dies. Reed says she is God's prophet and promises the missionaries they will witness her resurrection. Elder Kennedy turns up at Reed's front door looking for the missionaries, but Reed talks him into leaving, and Kennedy does not hear the screaming from the basement.
The resurrection and the throat
The scene people brace for happens in the basement, in the middle of the movie. The prophet seems to come back to life and describes the afterlife, and Barnes says it sounds like the hallucinations people report in near-death experiences. Barnes then signals Paxton to attack Reed, but Reed is faster and slashes Barnes's throat. Barnes bleeds heavily, and Reed claims she will rise from the dead too. He pulls a metal object out of her arm and says it is a microchip proving she was never real and that existence is a simulation. Paxton recognizes it as a contraceptive implant. She works out that the whole thing was staged while they were distracted: a second woman hid the prophet's body, took her place and gave the afterlife speech. That woman added an unplanned line, "it's not real," and Reed killed Barnes on the spot to cover for it.
The one true religion is in a cage
Paxton finds an underground chute and climbs in, while Reed promises it leads to the only true religion. She crawls through a series of chambers, and the last one is secured with the lock she used on her bicycle outside. Inside are emaciated women in cages. Paxton understands that Reed wants to prove his belief that all religion is rooted in a wish to control other people. She sticks a letter opener into him, and as she tries to get away he stabs her in return. They both lie bleeding in the basement, and when Reed mocks her for praying, she answers that she prays because she cares about other people, and does not expect it to produce material results.
The ending, explained
As Reed prepares to kill Paxton, Barnes reappears and kills him by smashing his head with a plank full of nails. Reed dies, and Barnes collapses and dies too. Paxton crawls out through a vent and gets outside. She sees a butterfly land on her hand, and then it vanishes.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: none, because there are no dogs in this one.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Heretic scary?
Yes, Heretic is a 6 out of 10. It has a couple of jump scares. Most of the fear is the tense suspense of being locked in a house with a host who keeps talking. It should wear off by the next morning.
How does Heretic end?
Reed kills Barnes, but Barnes reappears and kills him with a plank of nails before she dies. Paxton escapes through a vent, and a butterfly lands on her hand and vanishes.
Does the dog die in Heretic?
No dog dies in Heretic. There are no dogs in it, and no cats or other pets either.
Is there a post-credits scene in Heretic?
No. Heretic has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Was the resurrection real in Heretic?
No. In Heretic the prophet's resurrection is staged: a second woman hides the real prophet's body, takes her place and gives the afterlife speech while the missionaries are distracted.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Heretic is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't have to sit through Heretic to know what happens in Mr. Reed's basement. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror like this before you see it.
