The following article contains spoilers for Heretic.

Heretic's ending reveals that Mr. Reed has a history of luring innocent young women into his house and keeping them in cages, but his motives remain unclear.

In an interview with Den of Geek, co-director Bryan Woods broke down the film's ending and explained Mr. Reed's motives. He clarified that Mr. Reed's one true religion is "control" and the evening part of his "experiments of control." The two sisters had a "98 percent chance" of escaping the game, but due to feeling "intrigued and threatened by Sister Barnes," Mr. Reed had to "cross a line." The filmmaker also reveals that there are "many different outcomes," which is why the house is like "a chessboard." Check out his comment below:

Mr. Reed has spent his entire life investigating what is the one true religion, and over the course of his life, he has come to a hypothesis that he believes that the one true religion is control. So every religion is just really essentially men contriving a system to communicate their beliefs and operate and control how people live their lives and control how they think.

So he’s testing his hypothesis on this night, and there was a 98 percent chance on this night that the movie takes place on where he would have talked to these two missionaries and then would have sent them on their merry way. They basically would have had some awkward conversation in the living room, and then he would have said goodbye, they would have left. That was the most likely outcome of this evening. However, as the evening progresses, Reed finds himself intrigued and threatened by Sister Barnes. He thinks that she is quite the sparring partner and he is excited by her intelligence, and eventually that intelligence gets out of control and becomes dangerous for him. And so in order to maintain control, he has to cross a line.

Mr. Reed has in his experiments of control, and his hypothesis of "I can control somebody with ideologies and thoughts," would have kind of decision-treed out multiple outcomes for this evening. Many, many different outcomes. And as the night progresses, he has to keep going back to "okay, so this happened, so I think they’ll do this if I do that. So I’m gonna go over here and do this thing." … It’s almost like a game to him, hence the model kind of house, it’s like a chessboard. And he’s constantly playing chess in his mind. He’s predicting what they’re going to do and what he’s going to do.

What Bryan Woods' Comment Means For Heretic

It's Really A Game, Though Only One Scenario Is Shown

While the highly rated Heretic shows viewers the changeable house and Mr. Reed's "chessboard," the concept is more single-layered with the sisters in a game with Mr. Reed, and, in every scenario, they'll likely end up imprisoned or dead. Woods' comment clarifies that Mr. Reed's game isn't as deadly as it seems, which changes the way the events should be interpreted. The events in the film only have a 2% chance of happening.

Woods' comment explains what Mr. Reed's experiment is really about. He claims that the experiment is about religion, but his hypothesis is really about control, which establishes him as a God-like figure. He aims to break down the girls' spirits and make them submit to him fully, which Sister Paxton comes to realize at the end. This means that Mr. Reed, though dressed and talked like a knowledgeable man, is no different from any serial killer.

Our Take on Heretic

Ok, This Changes Everything!

The film only shows how moments are played out that evening, but it barely covers what was really going on. It also doesn't tell the story of how the other women ended up in cages since neither of the protagonists followed in their footsteps. A part of that is Sister Barnes outsmarting Mr. Reed. She enraged him, and when she became a threat, Mr. Reed put an end to her game.

Sister Paxton also surprised Mr. Reed by attacking him in Heretic. Even though she seemed innocent and weak and easy to manipulate, Sister Paxton showed strength just like her friend. She figured out the puzzle and became the first woman to make it out alive. Interestingly, neither of the two women represented the 98% of women who encountered Mr. Reed, which disproved his hypothesis. The film ends on an ominous note, showing Sister Paxton hallucinating a butterfly.

Source: Den of Geek