The Big Picture

  • Hereditary is a deeply disturbing film that weaves supernatural elements into a story about a family's deteriorating mental state.
  • The film revolves around a cult worshipping the demon Paimon, with the cult's influence passing through generations of the family.
  • The film's twisted ending sees the possessed mother, Annie, decapitating herself to release Paimon's spirit, which then possesses her son, Peter.

Ari Aster’s Hereditary is deeply disturbing and also a bit complicated. It weaves its mythology in such a way that you’re never completely sure what is actually happening and how much is just the characters’ deteriorating mental state. But there is a supernatural element to the story and that element is key to understanding the film’s twisted ending. Before we try to make sense of the ending, let’s just recap briefly what happened. Peter (Alex Wolff), now possessed by Paimon, one of the eight kings of hell, is worshipped by the cult of Paimon which his grandmother — declared “Queen Leigh” by the cult’s followers — formally led with Joan (Ann Dowd) as her top lieutenant. The decapitated bodies of Peter’s parents have been organized into a worshipful position, and Peter, who is now addressed as Charlie (Milly Shapiro), because he also has his sister’s spirit, is told that the trinity (presumably the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost) has been destroyed and that Paimon now reigns. Hail Paimon!

Hereditary Film Poster
Hereditary

When her mentally ill mother passes away, Annie, her husband, son, and daughter all mourn her loss. The family turn to different means to handle their grief, including Annie and her daughter both flirting with the supernatural. They each begin to have disturbing, otherworldly experiences linked to the sinister secrets and emotional trauma that have been passed through the generations of their family.

Release Date
June 8, 2018
Director
Ari Aster
Cast
Toni Collette , Gabriel Byrne , Alex Wolff , Milly Shapiro , Ann Dowd , Zachary Arthur
Runtime
127 minutes

What Is 'Hereditary' About?

So what exactly led to this conclusion? The biggest clue is the name of the film — Hereditary. There’s something particular to this bloodline, and while the title also refers to mental illness, there’s something special in Leigh’s bloodline that she needs to summon Paimon, who will bestow riches upon his followers as long as he’s in the body of a male host. Annie (Toni Collette) has spent her life trying to keep her mother’s influence away from the family, especially the male members. She tried to abort Peter and she didn’t want her mother to even touch him. This harkens back to the “schizophrenia” suffered by Annie’s late brother, who said that his mother was “trying to put people inside of him.” We later learn that Paimon needs a male host, hence why Annie was okay with her grandmother being close to Charlie.

As much of a presence as Ellen “Queen Leigh” (Kathleen Chalfant) is in the film, we never actually meet her — well, we never meet her alive that is. The film begins with the family getting ready for her funeral, a weird mood hanging over everyone. While Charlie is noticeably upset, Peter, Steve (Gabriel Byrne), and even Annie, don’t quite know how to feel. Annie even asks Steve if she should “be sadder.” It’s clear from the get-go that there is a very strange dynamic between Leigh and her family, which is only further proven when we see Annie secretly attend a grief group. This is where she reveals the story of her brother and his supposed “schizophrenia” — which, as we’ll come to learn, wasn’t true, and Leigh really was doing everything he accused her of. It’s why Annie is so against her mother having a relationship with Peter, and why she was so scared of being pregnant with him in the first place.

How Does Charlie Die in 'Hereditary'?

Milly Shapiro in Hereditary

The Graham family’s troubles may have begun with Grandma Leigh but they certainly don’t end when she passes. This becomes all too true when Peter is invited to a party, and Annie insists he takes Charlie with him, hoping things will slowly return to normal in their home. But on the way to the party, we see a familiar symbol etched into a telephone pole, the very same symbol that was on Leigh’s necklace. With the intent to smoke weed with his crush at this party, Peter leaves Charlie downstairs, encouraging her to get a piece of cake while she waits for him. Unbeknownst to Charlie or Peter, the cake contains nuts, and as the film casually revealed earlier, Charlie is severely allergic to nuts. This results in Charlie going into anaphylactic shock and Peter, in his inebriated state, rushes to drive her to the hospital. Desperate for air, Charlie rolls down the window and sticks her head out, and in a matter of moments, tragedy strikes. First, Peter swerves to avoid a dead deer, and then we see a glimpse of that very same pole we saw on the way to the party and Charlie’s shocked and horrified face, before getting decapitated by that very pole. It’s the moment that lets you know this movie isn’t messing around, and yet it’s only the beginning of the horrors that would soon be unleashed upon the Graham family.

What Is Haunting the Graham Family in 'Hereditary'?Toni Collette watching Gabriel Byrne burn to death in Hereditary

Annie ends up befriending a woman named Joan, who teaches her how to perform a séance which will allow her to communicate with Charlie’s spirit. Of course, this all seems fairly innocent from Annie’s standpoint; she’s vulnerable, and she needs closure, of course, this sounds like a good idea. But to us watching the film, we know this is simply a recipe for disaster. She convinces Peter and Steve to join her for the séance, which only serves to terrify Peter when Annie becomes possessed by Charlie’s spirit, only snapping out of it when Steve throws water on her. Sensing something is amiss and that Charlie’s spirit has grown angry and vengeful, Annie begins digging around. She finds drawings in Charlie’s sketchbook that seem to hint at bad things coming to Peter. To make matters worse, she can’t seem to burn the sketchbook without catching fire herself, hinting that something is very, very wrong. She searches through her mother’s belongings, and it’s here that she finds out her mother was the leader of a cult, and that her new friend Joan was one of the many followers of it. This is when Annie learns about the aforementioned “Paimon,” who is still in need of a male body to inhabit and Annie begins to realize Peter may be in grave danger. Paimon has been lingering around Annie for her entire life, and there is seemingly no way to escape him.

Back at school, Peter sees Joan across the street, yelling in an attempt to exile his spirit and claim his body for Paimon. It doesn’t seem to work at first, but when he’s in class, Peter is suddenly overtaken by an unseen force and violently smashes his face against his desk. Meanwhile, Annie, unable to burn the sketchbook herself, asks Steve to do it. Realizing things have gotten far too out of hand though, Steve tells Annie that he can’t do this anymore and that she’s sick, and he’s going to call the police. Shocked, scared, and hurt, Annie takes the book from him and tosses it into the fire, prepared to sacrifice herself if it means saving Peter. But in a shocking twist, Steve goes up in flames, and Annie’s horrified reaction suddenly turns to one of peace as Paimon possesses her in her vulnerable state.

Who Is Paimon, and What Does His Cult Want?

In a chilling shot, we see members of Queen Leigh’s cult gather around the Graham house, setting up for a perilous conclusion. When Peter wakes up, he looks around his room in confusion. Night has fallen, and the house is eerily quiet. What he doesn’t see is a very much possessed Annie lurking in the corner of the ceiling, hidden away by shadows. He maneuvers around the house, looking for his parents, and instead finds his father's corpse. But before he can react or even wrap his head around what he’s seeing, Annie is suddenly jumping at him and chasing him around the house. He hides in the attic but is unable to escape his now-possessed mom. And when he hears a disgusting, squelching sound, he turns around to find Annie sawing off her own head with a piano wire.

Decapitation seems to be the way to release Paimon’s spirit, hence why Charlie was decapitated by the telephone pole, and why Annie is now decapitating herself. Peter jumps from the window to try and escape, but as he lies in the bushes, seemingly dead, we hear the thud of Annie’s head hitting the floor up above, and the glowing orb of Paimon’s spirit floats down and enters Peter’s body. With Paimon now inhabiting a male host of Queen Leigh’s bloodline, the ritual is complete, and as Peter/Paimon enters the treehouse, he sees the headless bodies of his mother and grandmother, as well as a shrine to Charlie (complete with her severed head). Joan places a crown upon his head and explains to him that they have finally corrected his body and given him a male host, telling him: “You are Paimon. One of the eight kings of hell.” A chorus of “Hail Paimon!” rings as the camera pans out, framing the treehouse to look like one of Annie’s miniatures.

But wasn't Annie in on the whole thing, or at least responsible through her sleepwalking state? Isn't she partially to blame due to her mother’s ties to the cult, is her involvement subconscious or hereditary? According to Aster, it was actually the cult pulling the strings the whole time, although we're meant to think it might be Annie. Aster told Vulture, "The audience is supposed to suspect that it might be Annie, but it is the cult of which Ann Dowd is a very significant part. But you are supposed to feel through the film that there are people on the periphery that are watching this family and are hovering just outside."

How Did Peter Become Paimon?

Hereditary - 2018 - ending

Charlie eventually became the host for Paimon, a placeholder of sorts since Ellen couldn’t get to Peter, but Paimon still needs a male host of Leigh’s bloodline to bestow her riches (which is why she didn’t go after Annie’s husband, Steve). When Charlie dies, Joan uses this as an opening to use the séance as a way to transfer Paimon from Charlie to Peter. Paimon is still able to use his influence to burn Steve alive and have Annie chop her own head off, but the cult of Paimon still needs the demon to have a host. When Peter throws himself out the window, this provides the opening for Charlie/Paimon to inhabit his body. With neither Steve nor Annie around to feign off Paimon or act as a placeholder host, Peter is left completely vulnerable, allowing Paimon to take control of his body. The cult wins and Peter gets to spend the rest of his days as a host for a demon that murdered his family. It’s the feel-good movie of the year!

Of course, the real story of Hereditary is about the scars of family we can’t escape whether that be mental illness or massive tragedy. Aster uses the supernatural aspect to better illustrate what could have also been told in a story without supernatural influences — the death of a family member or the impact of a family member with mental illness and how they permeate our lives. Even without the Paimon stuff, Hereditary would still be a deeply sad and disturbing movie about a family in a state of decay through no fault of their own. That’s the real horror of Hereditary.

Hereditary is now streaming on Max in the U.S.

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