"It feels inevitable": Heretic directors break down the wild ending of Hugh Grant's latest thriller

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the directors of the newly released film Heretic, have broken down about its wild ending.

Heretic stars Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, and many others. Heretic follows the plot of two sisters, Paxton and Barnes, working for the missionary, who find themselves in jeopardy when they meet a mysterious man named Mr. Reed.

In the end, we do not really know the fate of the characters in Heretic. Whether they really die or not. The viewers must have a lot of questions popping up after watching Heretic.

In an interview with Fangoria, the director duo talked about the audience's presumption of the supposed death of the characters by saying:

"To us, it feels inevitable. Hopefully, it feels inevitable for an audience. That's inside bias. It is a discovery of what the story tells us, as we are its first audience members. That's always the fun in filmmaking for us. You don't know exactly where it is going to go. We hope that ride translates to the audience's experience."

Let us find out more details about everything the directors have broken down about the ending of Heretic.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers of 'Heretic.' Reader discretion is advised.

The wild ending of Heretic, explained

In Heretic, Barnes and Paxton are associated with the Mormon missionary. They are set to reach out to people and educate them about their faith. In one of their endeavors, they come across a man named Mr. Reed. What seemed to be a harmless experience for the sisters, little did they know that everything would change for them forever.

Mr. Reed corners them to challenge and test their boundaries and limits in regard to their faith, as he raises questions about religion. In the end, Mr. Reed stages a faux resurrection scene and then gashes Barnes's throat. Paxton attacks Mr. Reed, and he too does the same to her.

But Barnes somehow manages to appear and attacks Mr. Reed one last time before she perishes away due to her injuries. As Paxton manages to escape the eerie labyrinth-like trap, she encounters a butterfly. Paxton had always harbored a wish to be reborn as a butterfly.

That seems symbolic of a possible rebirth of Paxton. So, does that mean Paxton passed away too? We never know. In this whole catastrophe led by Mr. Reed, all he wanted to prove was that the core purpose of every religion is to exhibit control over people.

Heretic directors break down the wild ending of Hugh Grant's latest thriller

In the interview with Fangoria, the director duo Bryan Woods and Scott Beck further talked about their playfulness in their storytelling, as well as with the audience's expectations. About the ending of Heretic, the audience must be left wanting to have closure about the fate of the characters, especially of Paxton in relation to the butterfly.

But to make that tease was purely a conscious choice on their part, as the directors say:

"We love satisfying an audience and giving them what they hope for and want, just as much as we love annoying an audience and giving them what they don't want. In this movie, we are playing with fun payoffs. We are also playing with a lot of anti-climaxes."

Heretic raises pertinent and fundamental questions about faith, philosophy, and what indeed is the truth. It may make one question and challenge their own indoctrination, perception, conditioning, and belief system. Heretic has no concrete answer to the question, hence giving it a very obscure ending overall.

As per reports at Entertainment Weekly, Bryan Woods shared his thoughts about what the ending of Heretic means.

"To us, the ending does mean something specific, but saying what the ending means is almost like saying, 'This religion over here is the one true religion. It's almost at that level. It'll be really interesting to see once more people have seen the movie and taken it in, but we're hoping people have a clear interpretation and they defend that interpretation in conversation."

Going by what he says, it seems that Heretic is more about how we perceive it to be and what conversations it further gives rise to.