Faith in the Flames: A Review of The Heretic and the Dangers of Secular Nihilism

The Spiderman quote at the beginning gives it all away

What follows are my thoughts and reactions to the themes present in the movie The Heretic. I’m assuming you’ve seen it already as there are spoilers and this “review” is not going to recap the plot. If you are interested in seeing it, the movie is available to purchase and stream from Amazon Prime Video.

Heretic was a psychological thriller released in the fall of 2024. Some of the buzz, as I understand it, is due to the inclusion of Mormon sister missionaries as major characters in the film. Something that has not been done before. But this is not actually a movie about Mormonism.

The opening scene sets the stage for what the movie is about. It has Sister Paxton essentially repeating a commonly held maxim in the atheist movement - that people only believe in religion because they were born into it and taught to believe it when they were young and that if they were not indoctrinated as children, they likely wouldn’t believe it. Of course, the audience is distracted from this by the ladies talking about condoms, penis sizes, and Sister Paxton’s confession that she watched a pornographic movie.

The Power of Suggestion

The opening scenes with the discussions with Mr Reed and that whole farce about blueberry pie is also interesting and I think the film is exploring the themes about the powers of suggestion. He says his wife is cooking a pie and asks the girls what kind of pie she’s cooking and Paxton answers blueberry pie. It’s then later revealed that the scented candle he’s burning is scented “blueberry pie.” He further drives this point home, purposely after asking Sister Barnes how her father died. She says Lou Gherig’s disease, and he replies, “Blueberry disease?” highlighting how that how we interpret what we experience through our senses is quite subject to manipulation and suggestion. In the second act of the movie, Mr Reed hammers this point home when tells the girls “I put the scented candle on the table because I wanted you to think about the things you believe just because someone asked you the believe them.”

This theme is back on display in the third act with the sham “prophet.” Where it becomes clear the “prophet” and the “prophecy” are both farce. I think this also serves another purpose: to tip audiences off to the fact that they should not take what they are watching at face value and that the filmmaker is purposely going to be manipulating them so be careful with what you assume you know to be true - esp. if its information that Mr Reed had delivered.

The curious case of the butterfly

(This part comes from a Reddit user review. This is not my connection)

Near the movie's beginning, in the initial discussion with Mr Reed, Sister Paxton states when she dies, she wants to come back as a butterfly just to follow around the people that she loves. And that she’ll land right on their hand so that they know it’s her. Near the movie’s end, as a critically injured Sister Paxton escapes, a butterfly lands on her hand. We are then left to answer the question: Is Sister Paxton dead? We are shown a phone searching for service, which might be interpreted to indicate that Sister Paxton has escaped and will soon be reconnected with the outside world. Alternatively, we might take this to indicate that this is all merely a near-death hallucination. There is no cell service because Sister Paxton does not escape, and the butterfly indicates she has died. Or is the butterfly just a message telling Sister Paxton someone loves her? Maybe Sister Barnes is the butterfly?

However, we must remember the callback to the butterfly dream mentioned earlier by Mr. Reed. Zhuang Zhou dreams he is a butterfly, floating about, fluttering his wings, unconcerned with the tortuous inquiries of man, happy and content. Zhuang Zhou forgets he is a man. Yet suddenly Zhuang Zhou wakes up, only to find himself: his body, his limbs. But Zhuang Zhou doesn’t know if he is a man who has dreamt he is a butterfly or if he is a butterfly who is dreaming he is Zhuang Zhou.

How are we to know the truth? The message is that truth is whatever we believe it to be, and aside from that, we cannot know. Is Sister Paxton dead, dreaming she is alive? Or has Sister Paxton indeed escaped, and the butterfly is but a coincidence? Will Sister Paxton be reborn as butterflies are?

Thus, perhaps the movie's message is, in fact, the postmodernist assertion - that there is no ultimate truth, that it’s true if you believe it is. This certainly makes sense of the scene where Mr. Reed makes the girl choose a door to leave by. Door A - Belief, Door B - Disbelief. But then we find that both doors lead to the same place. So perhaps the message is, choose to believe or choose not to believe b/c in the end it doesn’t really matter and you end up in Hades anyways?

This postmodernist assertion is one that I remember being taught in college in an Anthropology class. It was presented first with the idea of moral relativism. To a young, impressionable mind that had never before been exposed to those ideas and lacked the life experience to think critically about them, they appeared initially to be self-evidently true. I do remember some classmates challenging the teacher on these points and disagreeing with her, but they were shouted down by the rest of the gullible/impressionable class in the form of a vote of the audience, and the professor moved on, seemingly triumphant. The ideas that reality/identity and morality are whatever you choose them, that nothing is true, and that everything is true all at once (and everyone has their own “truth.”) have led to societal and moral chaos and strife, with dark outcomes, which is what we’ll explore more in the rest of this review. Now, 30+ years later, it is very plain to see that while these ideas seem legitimate on the surface, counter-intuitively, they are not and are, in fact, incredibly destructive. They are pernicious evils meant to make us feel good by validating our feelings and thus playing into our egos but are ultimately the deceptions of devils meant to lead us into hell.

I think it is not a coincidence that at this point in the movie after Sister Paxton has made her statement about butterflies, the lights go out, Mr. Reed can no longer see clearly, and he has to put his glasses on. He then declares that it’s time for Pie and time for Enlightenment - when he starts diverging into his enlightenment-based philosophies.

Enlightenment ideas

The film dives into these enlightenment ideas early on. After a short diatribe about his belief that Joseph Smith's polygamy was just an excuse to cover up affairs with other women (which references the Fanny Alger affair.) Mr Reed (the movie's monster) says, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Sister Paxton says, “Spiderman.” (I laughed when she said that b/c since the Spiderman movie came out, and Uncle Ben says that, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that phrase repeated in LDS sacrament meeting talks.)

Mr. Reed corrects her and says, “Voltaire.” (there is no evidence that Voltaire ever said this, but it is often attributed to him b/c it is in line with many of his ideas.) It attempts to establish that Mr. Reed is much better read and educated than the girl and has superior intellect - something on display for much of the movie. If you know who Voltaire is and what his perspectives are/were, this is a huge clue to how the rest of the movie is going to play out and that Mr. Reed - far from being a “Golden” investigator, is actually a horrible and creepy man, jaded and twisted from his total deconstructing of faith.

Voltaire (1694-1778) was a French Enlightenment writer and philosopher. He strongly advocated for the freedom of religion, expression, and the separation of Church and State. He was also highly critical of the Roman Catholic Church, its corruption, and its power. Voltaire emphasized the moral obligations of leaders and those in positions of power to act in ways that benefit society. A similar sentiment appears in a speech given by Gabriel comte de Mirabeau during the French Revolution: “Ils doivent envisager qu’une grande responsabilité est la suite inséparable d’un grand pouvoir.” (“They must consider that great responsibility is the inseparable result of great power.”) Voltaire’s ideas significantly impacted the development of Enlightenment thinking and influenced both the French and American revolutions.

Should Mormons watch this Movie?

While including a Mormon element and sister missionaries might seem interesting to LDS viewers or readers, my assessment is that Mormonism is included more to help the writers advance their plot than anything else and to create dramatic horror tension through the inclusion of not one but two seemingly naive, helpless and vulnerable white women. The movie also needed a religion to pick on that many/most viewers would already view as false (to help make the movie's secular atheist point.)

Enter Mormonism - everyone’s favorite and most acceptable religious “whipping boy.” If they had used Islam, criticized Mohammed instead of Joseph Smith, and attempted the murder of 2 Islamic women or imams, the outcry from the liberal media would have been deafening. The liberal left is so hypocritical. Mormons, this treatment isn’t going to end until Mormons stand up for themselves, and there are consequences for mocking your religion. I’m not saying to go out and behead anyone, but there needs to be pushback and action. However, I found the part where Mr Reed compares Mormonism to the Bob Ross version of Monopoly quite funny. My TBM LDS son was less than impressed.

The film's presentation of Mormonism and the sister missionaries is somewhat shallow and stereotypical. During the movie's opening scene, my son objected, saying, “Sister missionaries would never say that or act like that.” Maybe, I don’t know. Neither of us has been sister missionaries, so I’m not sure we can say that, but I suspect he’s correct. In any event, the movie isn’t about Mormons or Mormonism at all it’s really about a worldview based on Faith/Belief vs one based on Secular Materialism and Nihilism. There is some criticism of Mormonism presented in the movie, but it’s the old “dime-store variety” version that Joesph Smith created polygamy as an excuse to have sex with other women. Most Mormons have heard some version of this many times, and it’s less likely to be offensive or faith-challenging than to provoke profound eye-rolling.

There is nothing of interest in this movie for the believing LDS. They can safely ignore it.

Voltaire’s Views on Religion

Please note that I’m not an expert on Voltaire, neither have I read any of his works, so what follows is based on internet research and answers from claude.ai.

Voltaire was not strictly anti-religious but was highly critical of organized religion, particularly the Catholic Church, and the abuses he perceived within institutional religion. His views were shaped by rationalism, skepticism, and deism, leading him to challenge many aspects of religious authority and dogma. He accepted the idea of God (he wasn’t an atheist) but was a fierce critic of what he saw as superstition, fanaticism, and clerical corruption.

Key Philosophical Positions and Critiques:

1. Deism and Critique of Organized Religion:

• Voltaire was a Deist, believing in a rational, impersonal God who created the universe but did not intervene in human affairs. He seems to become more agnostic in later writings.

• He rejected revealed religion and the authority of sacred texts, arguing that divine truths could be discerned through reason rather than revelation.

• Voltaire criticized the Catholic Church for its institutional corruption, wealth accumulation, and political power, famously coining the phrase:

• “Écrasez l’infâme!” (“Crush the infamy!”) — a call against religious oppression and superstition, primarily targeting the Catholic clergy.

2. Skepticism and Rationalism:

• Influenced by Enlightenment rationalism, Voltaire was deeply skeptical of miracles, superstition, and dogmatic belief.

• He argued that beliefs should be grounded in empirical evidence and reason rather than tradition or blind faith.

3. Opposition to Theocracy and Clerical Power:

• Voltaire opposed the merging of church and state, seeing it as a source of oppression and intellectual stagnation.

• He critiqued the Inquisition and other forms of religious persecution, arguing that clerical power often led to violence and the suppression of individual freedom.

4. Critique of Biblical Literalism and Dogma:

• Voltaire questioned the Bible's historical accuracy and moral integrity, especially the Old Testament, which he saw as filled with violence and contradictions. He was equally critical of the New Testament. His work "The Bible Finally Explained" (La Bible enfin expliquée) offered detailed criticism of both testaments, challenging their historical accuracy and internal consistency.

• He viewed doctrines such as eternal damnation and original sin as irrational and harmful to human progress.

5. Religious Tolerance and Pluralism:

• While critical of organized religion, Voltaire was a proponent of religious tolerance. His work Treatise on Tolerance (1763) condemned the execution of Jean Calas, a Protestant wrongly accused of murdering his son to prevent a conversion to Catholicism.

• He advocated for a secular society where diverse beliefs could coexist without persecution.

6. Critique of Fanaticism:

• Voltaire believed fanaticism was the most dangerous consequence of religious dogma. He saw it as a source of violence and societal division, as demonstrated in his play Mahomet, a critique of religious extremism. Regarding Mahomet the play was primarily a critique of religious fanaticism. Voltaire explicitly criticizes Islamic beliefs and practices, not just religious extremism in general. The play caused significant controversy both for its portrayal of Muhammad and its implicit criticism of Christianity.

All together we know where Mr Reed is coming from as the movie gets rolling.

I watched this movie with my son, who chalked it up to some liberal atheists in Hollywood (quel suprise) trying to produce an anti-religious film to try to destroy faith via Mr. Reed’s long anti-religious monologues. He’s not wrong for thinking that. I mean, Hollywood is pretty well established, I dare say, as being a bunch of anti-Christ devil worshippers. Nothing garners their ire more than the Christian truth!