My views
- Really good
Plot
Two young Mormon missionaries, confident Sister Barnes and timid Sister Paxton, arrive at the home of a reclusive middle-aged man, Mr. Reed. He invites them in, assuring them that his wife is preparing a blueberry pie in the back of the house. They begin to discuss religion, with Reed making several uncomfortable comments about their Mormon faith and the nature of belief. When Reed steps out of the room, Barnes realizes that the smell of blueberry pie is from a candle, the front door is locked, and they have no phone signal.
They follow Reed to his study, where he gives them a threatening lecture arguing that all religions are adaptations of one another and claims to have found the one true religion. The girls are told that the front door is latched and will not open. He gives the girls a choice of two doors to go through to exit the house: one if they still believe in God, and one if they do not. Barnes rebels, repudiating several of his claims. They enter the "Belief" door, but discover both doors lead to the same dungeon.
A decrepit woman appears, eats a poisoned pie, and dies. Reed claims that she is a prophet of God and the pair will witness her resurrection. A church elder arrives looking for the girls but leaves without hearing their screams. Paxton notices that the position of the prophet has changed. The prophet apparently comes back from the dead and describes the afterlife. Barnes rejects the prophet's description, noting its similarity to common hallucinations from near-death experiences. When Barnes gives Paxton a signal to attack Reed, he slashes Barnes's throat. He then claims that she will also rise from the dead.
As Barnes bleeds out, Reed removes a metal object from inside her arm, claiming it is a microchip that proves that Barnes was not real and the world is a simulation. Paxton recognizes the object as a contraceptive implant. Paxton realizes that everything was orchestrated by Reed; while the girls were distracted by the elder's arrival, a second woman hid the prophet's corpse, took her place and delivered the afterlife description as scripted by Reed, adding an unplanned comment: "It's not real." Reed's killing of Barnes and attempt to convince Paxton of a simulated reality was an improvisation to cover the plan going awry. Paxton discovers an underground chute in which the Prophet's corpse was hidden and climbs down, with Reed promising it will show her the "one true religion".
Paxton passes through a series of chambers, the last of which is locked with the bike lock she used before entering Reed's house. The final chamber is full of emaciated women in cages. She realizes Reed's conclusion: that a desire to control others is the root of all religions. Paxton stabs Reed with a letter opener, but Reed stabs her as she tries to escape. As they bleed in the basement, Paxton prays, telling Reed that it is done to think about others rather than to produce material results. Reed prepares to finish her off. Barnes, who is still alive, kills him with a plank of wood before dying. Paxton climbs out of a window and a butterfly lands on her hand; she earlier expressed a desire to be reincarnated as a butterfly that appears on the hands of her loved ones. It vanishes, leaving Paxton alone in the snowy landscape.
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