We have all heard those stories about some pastors who preach love, forgiveness, and avoiding sin but are secretly the worst kinds of predators themselves. Yes, those hypocrites who fool everyone with their holy acts. Sometimes, the victims are too scared or ashamed to speak up, and who can blame them? These pastors seem like saints to their communities, so it’s tough for people to believe the victims over these so-called do-gooders. Well, this movie called The Sintern dives right into one of these messed-up stories. It’s about a pastor named Dean Humphries, who looks like the perfect guy to everyone around him. But the main character, V, knows his dark secret and is finally ready to expose him. Now, you’re probably wondering, Why is V so determined to bring him down? Was she one of his victims, or was she standing up for someone else? In the end, V discovers that Dean has a personal connection to her that she never saw coming. Crazy, right? So, dive into this explainer of The Sintern to find out all the details and see if V succeeds in taking down the sinister pastor Dean Humphries at the end.
Spoilers Ahead
What happened to Monica?
We meet V, this super vivacious girl with crazy-colored curly hair. She was a loan shark working for a guy named Sam. Yes, it is a risky job, but V thrived on it. After all, she had been dealing with risks all her life, ever since she was a kid. Her mother, Monica, was a drug addict who bounced from one man to another and left V all alone. She never knew her dad, and she spent her childhood in foster homes. The only close person she had was her best friend Ruby, whom she knew from the foster care system. One day, out of the blue, V got a call from her mother, Monica, after many years. Monica called from a pay phone near a church and said she was going to take down a pastor, Dean, and that V deserved to know the truth about what happened to her. Then the call was cut off. V was naturally worried and figured something bad must have happened. It turns out Monica had been assaulted by this pastor, Dean Humphries, 25 years ago. She got pregnant, was abandoned by everyone—from her home, from the church, and from her community—and had to deal with it all alone.
Now, Monica had had enough. She knew she had to bring him down. So, while Pastor Dean Humphries was doing a live charity event at his church, pretending to be this great guy, Monica showed up to expose him. She knew he wasn’t just her assaulter; there was another woman named Rachel suffering because of him too, and there were probably many more. But Dean’s men threw her out of the church because they thought she was just acting crazy because of her drug addiction. After making the call, Monica was still standing by the pay phone when Dean himself came to talk to her and pretended to apologize and care. And then Dean’s wife, Heidi, showed up. She was ice-cold, ruthless, and selfish. She threw $5000 in Monica’s face and told her to leave. When Monica refused, Heidi ordered their bodyguard, Amir, to “take care of her.” It seemed pretty obvious that Heidi only cared about their reputation and didn’t give a damn about what Dean had done to her or those other women. And even if she knew, she chose to turn a blind eye to it. She made sure Monica couldn’t talk about it by having Amir kill her. That call was the last conversation V ever had with her mom. After that, the next morning, V got a call from the police saying her mom was dead. V was shocked and knew it had something to do with the church and Pastor Dean. Even though there were visible bruises on Monica’s face, the police still thought her death was the result of an overdose. V was lost and didn’t know what to do, but one thing was clear—her mom’s death wasn’t natural; it was murder. And V knew she had to find out the truth.
Why was V thrown out of the church?
So, after V’s mother died, V was really devastated. They hadn’t been close, but a mother is still a mother, right? At the police station, V found a card from her mother written to Dean and realized they were close. V knew exposing Dean wouldn’t be easy because he had a strong community backing him, and she didn’t have enough evidence to take him down. So what did she do? V decided to get sneaky. She went for an interview as a social media intern at the church to learn more about their charity events and stuff. She completely changed her look—dyed her hair natural colors, swapped her clothes for church-friendly outfits, and memorized some Bible verses from Google. She even took the name “Chastity” to sound all proper and churchy. But when V went for the interview and Pastor Dean asked her about the Bible verses, she couldn’t answer them correctly. She had to think fast! She played the sympathy card by saying she was lonely, spent her life in foster care, and wanted to be better, which is why she needed the job. Dean, being the creep he is, hired her because he liked to target single women, mothers, and girls without parents to pretend to be their savior and then overpower them.
V got the job, and things were going smoothly. She gathered information on Dean’s shady dealings and noticed Rachel wasn’t coming to church anymore, meaning something was wrong. She also saw Heidi pretending to be the “perfect wife,” forgiving her husband, and standing by him for her own fame. V was getting restless because she needed solid evidence against Dean. V befriended a church musician named Gaze and confessed everything to him—how she got into the church and her plan to bust the pastor. With Gaze’s help, she found CCTV footage in front of the church of her mother being abducted and killed. She knew she needed more evidence. So, she secretly put a camera in Dean’s room. When Dean tried to force himself on her, V hit him and ran away. Realizing how many women had been Dean’s victims, V knew she had to act. Anyway, Sam, her old boss from the loan shark job, tracked her down. He wanted her to steal money from the church’s savings, or he’d hurt Ruby, V’s only friend. She couldn’t let that happen, so she decided to leave the church. But before leaving, she confronted Dean and Heidi and demanded money, threatening to expose the molestation evidence and the CCTV footage. Dean, being the abusive pro he was, and with Heidi as his biggest supporter, threw V out. He knew that the single woman had too much to lose to stand against him. He told her it was a lost battle and she should just leave them alone.
So, when V got thrown out of the church, things got even worse. There was this church supervisor who knew Monica from before and was aware of Dean’s nasty history of assault. When V got kicked out, she came to support her and said she would help V expose Dean. She even gave V a DNA test report, and guess what? Dean was V’s father! Finding out she had been molested by her own father was horrifying for V. She couldn’t take it anymore. So, the day of the live charity event at the church finally came, and V decided it was time to bust Dean in front of the live cameras. She finally exposed him, and even though Dean tried to stop her, it was too late. The police came and arrested him for all his crimes. Finally, justice was served! In the end, we see that V and Gaze are in a happy and healthy relationship. Maybe V finally gets a chance to live a normal life by working for the church and actually doing some good for the community. Her journey started with a beautiful memorial service at the church for her mother, Monica, and many other women who were assaulted by Dean came to attend it. It was clear they were also proud of V for showing courage and bravery in tearing down this predator’s mask to reveal his reality. It was much needed.
