In the Menu, the antagonist Slowik's motivations are revealed subtly as the plot progresses. He's still psychotic, but a key difference between him and Heretic's Mr. Reed is that you can actually get through to Slowik and try to play his game and beat him at it.
Mr. Reed's sudden murderous nature in the second half after the amazing tension and build-up in the first half felt off. It gets worse in the third act when he's revealed to be just another lunatic who keeps women in his basement, but without any obvious motivations apart from a need to prove how right he is. My first guess, when he kept talking about a wife, was that he did have one but she passed away and the Church was somehow responsible.
It's still a good watch but it would've been great if they'd gone The Menu route and kept the intellectual discussion going, with the girls actually escaping by figuring it (his intentions and the one true religion) out, without the sleazy serial killer vibe. I also think the movie could've used a slight supernatural element or just an illusion of one, especially for the Prophet bit. What we actually got didn't live up to the kind of man he seemed to be in the first act.
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