The horror is not just supernatural—it’s about family trauma, mental illness, and the terrifying idea that your identity and suffering were never your own, but pre-scripted by your ancestors as a sacrifice to a demon.
Peter (now Paimon) descends into the treehouse behind the house. Inside, the decapitated, rotting bodies of Annie (now headless) and Charlie (whose head is now on a mannequin) bow to him. The cult members (including Joan) bow and whisper, “Hail Paimon.” Peter/Paimon lets out a victorious, demonic scream—and then makes Charlie’s signature clicking sound. The demon has finally been placed in a male host, fulfilling the hereditary curse that was always the plan from the moment Charlie was born. hereditary-2018-
Steve forces Peter to take Charlie to a high school party. Charlie, allergic to nuts, accidentally eats a chocolate cake containing walnuts. Having a severe allergic reaction, Peter rushes her to the hospital. On the way, Charlie sticks her head out the car window for air. Peter swerves to avoid a dead deer in the road. Charlie’s head is instantly decapitated by a telephone pole. The horror is not just supernatural—it’s about family
Things escalate: Annie sees a ghostly figure of her mother. Steve finds Joan’s séance book in the trash, and Annie realizes Joan is a plant. That night, Steve burns the book, but it teleports back. Annie frantically searches her mother’s belongings and finds a photo album showing her mother with a demonic cult. The book, The Invocation of Paimon , reveals the plan: Ellen was the queen of a cult that worships King Paimon, a demon of knowledge. The goal is to place Paimon’s spirit into a male host—Peter. The cult members (including Joan) bow and whisper,
Annie tries to protect Peter by burning Charlie’s sketchbook. As the book burns, she sees a photograph of herself as a child with her mother, and realizes her mother made her feed Charlie (from infancy) nut oil to induce the allergic reaction. Charlie was never a normal child; she was the temporary vessel for Paimon.
The family is shattered. Annie is consumed by guilt and rage. Peter is catatonic with trauma. Annie discovers a cryptic note from her mother: “Our sacrifice will pale next to the rewards.” Desperate to speak to Charlie, Annie attends Joan’s séance. Joan leads her in a ritual to contact Charlie’s spirit. The planchette moves on its own, and Annie feels Charlie is in the room.