Heretic

“I want to know what’s going to happen before we choose.” -Sister Barnes I knew next to nothing about this movie outside of finding a ticket stub for it, hearing an ex-Mormon give it praise and seeing the clip of Hugh Grant doing his Jar-Jar impression so I have no clue why I felt so obligated to see this movie. But I am so glad I did because not only does it appeal to horror-type antagonists who use games to preach their philosophy but it also opened my eyes to showing how narrow minded my world view was despite thinking I had grown. Along with this the movie alluded to directions I was wary they would commit to, such as the supernatural, but ultimately use those misdirections to add layers to the message in such a fulfilling way. I’ll get the tangible stuff out of the way before I rattle on about the message but the performances in this movie are stellar. Such a small cast but they do a great job showing the variety of different views on religion from Sister Barnes who clearly internally questions her practices but sticks to the faith despite it all, Sister Paxton who we can see questioning how to practice and proclaim her faith, and Mr. Reed who is unbelievably charismatic in the way a good professor is. Reed is written from the beginning to know much more than he leads on whether that be something so small such as knowing to bring them soda instead of coffee. The house the film takes place in is beautiful, with the bits of religious paraphernalia really hitting you on the head with the subject matter in a tasteful way. Everything is framed wonderfully but I am not knowledgeable enough to explain how so please forgive me. While style this movie has, substance is where the movie thrives. My take away from this movie is that while there is truth in Mr. Reed’s belief that religion is often a tool of control, yet to dismiss its benefits as purely a side effect of an inherently evil system is flawed, especially when he gives us an example that any human created ideology, secular or not, can be twisted as a tool of malice and oppression. I think it’s very important that Mormonism is the religion focused on here because while yes the LDS church is very skeptical and many of its old and current practices are odd or quite backwards, just how does subjecting the individual followers to cruelty help them? You can quite easily joke about Mormons anywhere with little repercussions unlike most faiths depending on where you live. The “magic underwear” is something mentioned twice, both mockingly. While I believe the practice is oppressive, who in this world can say these people deserve to be ridiculed to their face when we live in a world where people are, through their upbringing, forced to wear other types of garments, abstain from certain types of foods or avoid the use of certain technologies. The world is not above Mormons, we just tell ourselves that by using them as the marker of social and religious heresy instead of helping those so ingrained within their church. The film does a great job at making this distinction between the structural evil and the lives of those at the very bottom by showing how vulnerable these missionaries are while the Elder prioritizes mission work over helping them. Whether or not Sister Paxton truly believes in her faith by the end is inconsequential to the movie’s message. Reed spends the entire movie trying to make them renounce their faith because he’s caught up on the tangibility. Sister Paxton is unsure of her faith by the end, yet prays despite that. Reed sees that religion is a human creation yet fails to see the humanity in religion. He is more preoccupied with making them feel worthless for what they are rather than trying to save them from the evil he sees in the church. Even though we know the true extent to the flaws in the church as the audience, the missionaries do not, and in their mind are trying to save a man from damnation. In this way this movie makes me pity the Mormon, someone so set up to believe such nonsense, yet oftentimes in their hearts truly is a sense of human compassion that is simply filtered through the most distorted lens, its tragic and it's beautiful. I am very appreciative of this movie because I feel like it will help me grow to become more empathetic. I know that to some this movie will sound like it’s fence sitting but I truly think it’s important to acknowledge that malice can be perpetuated through any lens, otherwise we’re doomed to perpetuate through our own sense of justifications through beliefs moral superiority and refined beliefs.