Thursday, October 3, 2019
October Horror Challenge 2019 #12: "The Heretics"
Netflix knows me so well. They like to recommend twisted movies like this because they know I'll enjoy then. I've been waiting to see this one for awhile. It's a lower budget flick, but those can still be really good when they're done right. I can't really tell what it's about because I stay away from movie descriptions that have a tendency to give away everything that happens in the movie, but I can tell from the poster and bits of the preview that it deals with a messed up religious group of some kind that do bad things to people. What fun!
Indeed, this movie features 21 flavors of messed up religious people. The main character, Gloria, was kidnapped and tortured by a religious cult. She survived the attack but still has nightmares of the event. She belongs to a support group of people who have survived similar abuse. She's trying to rebuild her life, but suddenly she's kidnapped again by what remains of the same cult and she learns something horrible is going to happen to her unless she can figure out a way to stop it.
I always manage to find the movies about messed up religious people. It makes sense I suppose, given my vast experience with messed up religious people. When these movies are done right, they can shine a light into the darkness that comes with believing something so strongly you're willing to do anything and hurt anyone in your path to carry out whatever you believe is your mission. That's why cults like this are so scary. We've all known people who believe in things very strongly, and it's scary to think about how taking that a step too far can lead to violence and pain. If we're willing to admit it, that is. No one ever thinks they'd be capable of doing horrible things, so they think "wow, these people are broken beyond repair" when actually, the more you believe something, the longer you're told lies, the more they can fester until you're believing and doing terrible things. That's what happens to a few characters in this movie, and I really felt for them.
I have to say, this movie is definitely done right. The acting is really good and I cared about the characters and what happened to them. There were some surprises along the way (yay finding love in a hopeless place! Yay people questioning their messed up beliefs and trying to move on!) Since I cared about the characters so much, it affected me seeing their lives spiral out of control and seeing evil warp and destroy everything good in their lives. Plus there's some gore and sadistic twisted crap, and there are a few twists that really worked and affected me. I'm glad I checked this movie out.
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