November 13, 2024 – I usually don't bother with horror films, but this one is getting good reviews, and it stars the always charming Hugh Grant, gleefully playing a twisted killer.

This movie reminded me of that funny Geico commercial, you know, where kids under threat decide to hide behind a whole bunch of chain saws, while the announcer says, “When you're in a horror movie, you make poor decisions.” The two victims who step inside the spider's trap operated by Mr. Reed (played by Hugh Grant of “Love Actually”) certainly make some bad decisions in this story.

The two victims are Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (played by Sophie Thatcher of “MaXXXine”) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East of “The Fabelmans”). Despite it being against the rules to enter a home where no woman is present, they accept Reed's invitation to enter, after he assures them his wife is inside. Part of the reason for this is very bad weather, and they have no car.

As they attempt to get Reed interested in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, they soon discover that Reed is an expert on comparative religions, and even seems to know more about their own religion than they do. Reed, it seems has made quite a study of different religions, especially “the big three,” Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as the ancient religions before The Big Three, some of which had similarities to the Big Three. He calls these similarities “iterations.”

By this time, the two girls have discovered that they are trapped inside the house and that Reed might just be a crazy, dangerous man with some kind of weird religious obsession. Mr. Reed tells the two missionaries that they can leave at any time, but they must choose between two doors to leave the house. One is marked “belief” and the other “disbelief.”

This is really a fool's choice, because the two missionaries can see for themselves that both doors lead to the basement, but they go anyway (even through they are not being directly threatened by Reed) because when you are in a horror movie, you make bad decisions. What follows is an increasingly weird series of events, involving secret passages, a horrible experiment in reincarnation and what turns out to be a real house of horrors.

The true surprise is, after all the ill-advised decisions which lead the two missionaries straight into Reed's trap, Paxton suddenly becomes a genius, much like Sherlock Holmes, with keen powers of observation. She makes a brilliant series of deductions, uncovering Reed's whole agenda. She deduces just how Reed manipulated them and how he tricked them into thinking that they had witnessed a miracle.

This film does generate a lot of creepy vibes, and the story has a lot of twists and turns, with a few surprises, but it is not to hard to guess some developments, just because they are horror film clichés. For instance, just because some character dies in one scene, don't be surprised when they turn up not to be dead, after all.

The three main characters in this film all give strong performances, which makes this an effective film, despite the unbelievability of the plot. This movie rates a B.

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