Former Mormons react to Heretic
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- What happens when two ex-Mormon women watch A24’s Heretic, the horror film about sister missionaries and faith deconstruction? A Girlscamp deep-dive! Chelsea Homer joins me to unpack our thoughts and reactions-trust us, there’s a lot to discuss.
TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion of depicted violence & suicide
References:
Chelsea's Girlscamp episode open.spotify.c...
Sophie Thatcher article on Mormonism hungermag.com/...
Lost and Found club www.lostandfou...
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I laughed when I heard that the church put out a statement saying that this movie gave an inaccurate impression of missionary safety. I laughed because, ironically, this movie showed missionaries as SAFER! 😅 I was a full-time sister missionary and literally no one knew where we were to come look for us. And the closest missionaries were hours away. I know that Topher’s character didn’t actually help the sisters but even the fact that he knew where to look for them was more than my true mission experience.
I have loved hearing people’s different perspectives of this movie! There are so many Easter eggs!
The church doth protest too much methinks.
My mission was incredibly unsafe in Brazil.
Mr. Reed killed sister Barnes because she said she did not believe. He knew nothing of the code word between the sisters. He represents the church. He lures you in with kindness, shows you false miracles and then puts you in a literal cage to represent the metaphorical cage of religion. If you don't believe his miracle or his macabre religion of control, he has no use for you so he cuts you off literally.
1:07:38 As an ex-Catholic (and never a true believer), “Our father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name-” enters my brain unbidden all the time. I’m sure some would try to tell me that means I believe somewhere deep down, but I think it’s more that I heard it every damn Sunday and Monday between the ages of 6 and 11 and happen to have obsessive-compulsive disorder. Great review/reaction, and it was nice to hear you both talk about and affirm one another’s interpretations!
Ive literally never believed in God or had a religious family and even I remember prayers. Theyre designed like that.
When I was in the home stretch of grad school my wife and kids decided to return home to Utah so I could finish my thesis without interruption. I rented room in the basement of a lady in the ward. In the basement she had bookshelves of Mormon intellectual literature. Apparently her dead husband was big in the Sunstone Symposium crowd back n the 80s so they collected a treasure trove of subversive material. One book caught my attention…Nightfall at Nauvoo. That book shook me to my core just like Mr. Lee. I had already been dabbling in Mormon apologetics so I wasn’t exactly naive to my faith being challenged, however, this book was a sledgehammer to the face. Needless to say, within the year I was divorced and left the church never to look back.
I've been waiting all week for this episode. I saw it in theaters on Friday and I loved it.
I think the Topher Grace character was supposed to be the ward mission leader but they kind of chose to get it wrong that he would have a missionary badge cuz they thought it would be important in the movie for him to have a badge.
Great conversation! It struck me how Mr Reed begins by breaking down their religion to get them deeper into his.
Not unlike the way Joseph Smith claimed god told him all other churches were wrong.
His use of nihilism is the same that many religions use to get people afraid enough to believe in things against their own common sense.
Acting from everyone was so good.
The better version of this movie is Miracle on 34th St. Think about it.
Just watched Thomas Thorogood explanation of this movie and he does a good job of explaining how he thinks it actually points to Christianity!
Also, i know you already had a former Mormon who stayed believing in Jesus on the pod (Nicole Mitchell) but since you mentioned in this video that you’d like the hear this perspective - if you’re looking for a former Mormon turned evangelical who you may disagree with more, there’s a sweet girl I’ve been watching for years named Sydney Frances who I think would love to be interviewed by you or John Dehlin, etc. She lives in MO so I don’t know if she’d be able to make the trip to UT or do a phone interview but i think it’d be a good episode to hear a different pov. :)
Such a great discussion!! You both brought up so many good points for me to ponder (and not pray 😉) over
I just wanted to join in this conversation. I had so much to add but this was an amazing conversation and episode.
Take this whole movie & concept & now apply to life & the leaders & governments that have lied to us are whole life. It goes way deeper unfortunately. Also the descent down into the basement was the an anti temple ceremony if you are familiar with the original temple signs of throat & stomach slitting to the women with veils. Also a play on Dante’s descent into hell which Mr. Reed has hanging on his wall. The movie is full of deep stuff beyond Mormonism. But great recap for TBM’s just needing a soft explanation lol
How would he have swapped the prophet bodies if the Mormon bloke hadn't shown up? Wouldn't the sisters have noticed that somebody shows up from the floor and dumbs the body if there had been no distraction?
Just saw this movie in a theater alone… do not recommend lol. I served in CA to-Los Angeles-had very similar experience to your friend
Errr, why do you not recommend it?
@@ginismoja2459 I just don’t recommend watching it alone!
Never Mormon who appreciates the thoughtful stories of ex-Mormons about their deconstruction process. One book that I would suggest as part of your reconstruction process is "More Than Allegory: On Religious Myth, Truth and Belief" by Bernardo Kastrup.
I loved this movie!! Loved hearing your take on it from an ex mormon perspective.