Warning: This column contains spoilers for the film. “Heretic.”

I went to see “Heretic” four days after the elections. It was too early.

Attracted by the promise of shocks and Hugh Grant in manic villain modeSet in what the trailers appeared to be a supernatural trap house, I sought to escape the big screen’s rowdy, distressing news cycle.

I got some of that but also, at a very key moment, caged women. And a great sermon from Grant’s murderous Mr. Reed about how they were exactly where they wanted to be.

Because they had chosen to be controlled.

It was an obvious case of pathological mansplaining. As we had just witnessed for an hour and a half, the women were caged because they had been systematically trapped, terrorized, threatened and attacked. But it was practically the last thing he needed. (The “Babygirl” trailer, in which a powerful woman longs to be intimidated by a sexy 24-year-old, didn’t help either.)

Although it remains to be seen what a second Trump administration will mean for this country in terms of the economy and international relations, the cultural effects have already begun: the day before watching “Heretic,” my teenage daughter and her friends were bullied by men. schoolmates chanting “Your body, my choice: Trump 2024,” something that is happening across the country with frightening regularity.

this later most white women supported Trump. However, I didn’t, and neither did millions of others. So forgive me if I watched but didn’t appreciate the irony of Reed’s “I did this because you let me” lecture in “Heretic,” or his depiction of women in cages.

With the revocation of our reproductive rights in many states, the election of an outspoken rapist as president, and the ultra-conservative vision of Project 2025 now in political play, the vision of women being punished because they didn’t know that a seemingly strange but normal guy was a psychopath, and then somehow neutralizing him when he started acting a little restless, hitting too close to home.

It may not be fair to judge any film by the possible implications of an election held long after its completion. But horror is political, and the influence of various religious forces on contemporary American government (including, but not limited to, the Christian right) has been growing for many years. You can’t release a movie in which a man obsessed with the power of religion turns out to be a murderous lunatic trying to lecture two young women about how to choose without expecting some kind of reaction beyond “Hugh Grant in the best role of his career!”

For the record, I appreciated his performance and especially enjoyed watching “Heretic,” which, while predictable at times, hits all the necessary creepy notes while also being more thoughtful and less gory than much of the genre. Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are obviously (sometimes clumsily) interested in exploring the difference between faith and submission, but the film certainly rejects Reed’s thesis that his victims chose, or deserved, their fate.

In fact, Mr. Reed is almost immediately identified as a very bad guy, who lures two nice young Mormon men into his home by expressing interest in their church, then locks them up, cutting off communications with the outside world, for a coerced TED and increasingly threatening. Talk that culminates with a direct challenge of faith.

The only “choice” Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) make is to enter his house, allow him to close the door behind them, and take their coats. (Ladies, put away your coats).

Beyond his supposed frustration with organized religion, we learn very little about Reed. Grant chooses a dimwitted professor rather than, say, a conflicted would-be monk, and offers at least a reminder that a boyish smile and bright blue eyes are simply quirks of genetics rather than reflections of humanity. (Honestly, has anyone checked Hugh Grant’s basement lately?)

The women are better drawn. Paxton is a sweet and enthusiastic missionary born into the faith; Barnes joined thanks to her mother’s conversion and seems a little sharper. When they realize that the man answering the door is not what he seems (Mrs. Reed is not there, the front door is locked, the windows are too small to get out of), they do their best to play along. and then when things get bad. more terrible, escape.

Both Reed and the film are obsessed with deconstructing religion, including the willingness to believe in what seems impossible. There’s a lot of back-and-forth about Mormonism’s polygamous history and, increasingly, about the dangers of believing in one religion over another when they share similar mythologies. All of which results in the women being forced into the inevitable basement/pit so beloved of horror movies.

When Sister Barnes accuses her captor of promoting a magic trick as a miracle and Sister Paxton discovers the caged women, the film reveals its own deception. Reed’s madness is not rooted in his understanding of faith as a desire to be controlled; If that were the case, there would also be men in those cages. No, stripped of its considerable iconography, “Heretic” is the story of a serial killer who, as so many serial killers do, feeds exclusively on women.

One could read into this a subtextual commentary on the subjugation of women found in the conservative currents of what Reed calls “the big three” – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – or even in society in general. But “Heretic” doesn’t deserve that criticism, nor does it even seem interested in it. Reed’s scruples about religion are gender neutral; their pathological needs are not.

Which, a few weeks ago, would have been fine, if a little disappointing. Although it sets out to be about more than just a man creatively luring women into slavery and slaughter, “Heretic” need not be anything more than what it is; Not every movie can capture true social horror with the scalpel’s edge of “Get Out.” (“Barbarian” was a fantastic watch that kept you on the edge of your seat, even if it didn’t force big questions about the true nature of Airbnbs.) . Much has been made about the final scene of the film, which leaves the trial of “Heretic” on Faith and Justice Are Limitless But I found myself worrying less about the existence of God or the fate of the young protagonist and more about those. caged women

Who were they and how long had they been there? Was someone going to find them and free them? Had their heads been broken or was there hope of recovery? Are we really okay with the possibility of them simply starving or freezing to death?

In horror movies there are always nameless victims, sacrificed for a scare or two. There was a time when that wouldn’t have bothered me much. Coming out of “Heretic,” I felt tired of it. When a movie’s villain so obviously sees women as accessories, the movie itself needs to do better.

If you’re going to have the temerity to put women in cages for our entertainment, you better find a way to let them out.