“Hereditary” Ending Explained: Who Is Possessed by the Demon — and Why Does Director Ari Aster Think It’s a ‘Happy Ending?’

If the final scenes of Hereditary had you mind blown, you’re not alone.

The psychological horror film, directed by Ari Aster — also known for the popular movies Midsommar starring Florence Pugh and Beau Is Afraid starring Joaquin Phoenix — follows the Graham family in the wake of their domineering grandmother Ellen's death. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that she was hiding more than the family could have ever imagined.

Ellen's daughter, Annie Graham (Toni Collette), becomes increasingly frantic as her family deals with compounding loss and seemingly supernatural forces. The ending is foreshadowed throughout the movie, as disturbing behavior from Annie's kids and herself eventually turns fatal.

Aster has cited family trauma as a major theme in the movie, which is now streaming on Netflix. “Ultimately, I did want to make a film that was seriously tackling these issues and operating almost as a meditation on [familial trauma], while at the same time functioning as an exciting genre film that hopefully delivers,” he told Vox in 2018.

Here’s everything to know about the Hereditary ending, from Annie’s confrontation with the dead to reckoning with her unknown family history — and beyond.

Warning: Hereditary spoilers ahead!

What leads up to the ending of Hereditary?

The Graham family’s youngest child, Charlie (Milly Shapiro), is clearly an outcast while her older brother Peter (Alex Wolff) falls into a much more mainstream pack at school. Charlie rarely speaks, only making clicking sounds, and was seen earlier in the film cutting the head off of a pigeon to make a kind of toy.

The initial turning point in Hereditary takes place relatively early on in the film, when Peter asks his mom if he can go to a party and she encourages him to bring Charlie along.

At the party, Charlie, who is allergic to nuts, eats a slice of cake that contains walnuts. She ends up having a reaction and Peter attempts to drive her to the hospital in a panic. When he sees a deer on the road, he swerves and Charlie’s head, which she’s hanging out the window, is struck by a utility pole, leaving her decapitated.

Annie finds Charlie’s headless body in the morning and from this point on continues to struggle with sleeplessness, becomes increasingly erratic and returns to a grief support group, which she originally attended after her mother’s death.

In the parking lot, she meets Joan (Ann Dowd), a seemingly harmless woman, but when Annie goes to her apartment, there’s a strange connection that becomes the viewer's first clue: Joan’s welcome mat is made in the same pattern that Ellen used to crochet.

Later, Joan and Annie have another parking lot run-in and Joan tells her that she recently participated in a séance, during which she made contact with her dead grandson. She suggests to Annie that it may work to contact Charlie, so they try it and Joan seemingly conjures her grandson.

How does Hereditary end?

In time, it becomes clear that Annie’s mother, Ellen, was the leader of a cult that worships the demon Paimon, which needs a human body as its host. On-screen, Paimon is considered the god of Ellen's group, and in real life, the character has been written about for centuries, signified by the loopy symbol that shows up throughout the film, namely in Ellen's necklace.

Through Annie's therapy, viewers realize that her mother had tried to summon Paimon into her brother but after he died by suicide, Ellen had to send her focus to Annie’s children. Charlie becomes Ellen’s favorite and hosts Paimon, but when she is killed, Peter becomes the best available host. After seeing the demon's symbol carved into the telephone poll, viewers know that the cult wanted Charlie to die in order to have a more ideal, male host.

Later on, Annie finds her mother's headless body in her own attic, adding to the ramping of the final moments. Throughout the movie, Annie strives to protect her family, but in the end she, too, falls victim to this ongoing tragedy. After watching her husband die while being engulfed in flames, she becomes possessed. Tricked into calling upon the demon, Annie cuts off her own head with a wire, giving in to the power of Paimon.

While Peter attempts to escape his mother and the cult members who have appeared in the house, he leaps out of the attic window to his death. This allows Paimon's spirit to enter his body and he stands up and starts to make clicking noises just like his sister used to.

The film ends with a shot of Peter in the treehouse his younger sister loved. He’s surrounded by lit candles and members of the cult his grandmother was a part of. Now, he’s finally possessed by Paimon, who had been within Charlie all along.

According to Aster, this ending is happy for some and devastating for others. Speaking about Charlie to Variety in 2018, he said, “From the moment she’s born ... there’s a girl that was displaced."

In the end, though, Aster thinks she has finally found a place to rest. “See, it’s a happy ending,” he said.

What is the meaning behind the end of Hereditary?

While Hereditary uses the horror genre to exaggerate ideas and entertain, its foundational theme is trauma, according to Aster.

“I knew that I really wanted to make a film about the corrosive effects of trauma on a family unit," he told Vox. "I knew that I wanted to make a film that had sort of an ouroboros quality about a family that’s basically eating itself in its grief."

The filmmaker said that he had to look inward to find the inspiration for the movie.

"It’s a story that I certainly had in me," Aster said. “At the end ... the movie is still about how trauma can utterly transform a person, and not necessarily for the better."

What is the significance of the doll house in Hereditary?

Throughout Hereditary, Annie is seen working on a doll house, which depicts her family and the actual traumatic events that happened to them, including Charlie's decapitation.

In a 2018 conversation with NPR, Aster explained the significance of the dioramas.

"It just struck me as a solid metaphor for the family's situation, which is that they're ultimately people without any agency," he said. "They are like dolls in a dollhouse, being manipulated by these outside forces."

Is there a sequel to Hereditary?

There is currently no sequel to Hereditary but rumors have swirled a few times about Aster creating a second film, as Hereditary 2 was listed as "in development" on IMDb in 2022.

Aster hasn't completely written the idea off. “I have an idea for a sequel to Hereditary ... Who knows if I’ll ever do it," he said at a 2023 Q&A, per This Week Media.

Lead actress Collette, however, is not so sure. In a 2021 conversation with the Daily News, she responded to the rumors and said, “My headless character? Where does she go?”

Collette continued, “I would not have a clue ... I don’t know what is being concocted in Ari Aster’s fascinating mind. You never know. Never say never, but I can’t imagine it ever eventuating.”

Are Hereditary and Midsommar connected?

Many fans of Aster’s work have speculated that Hereditary and Midsommar are actually connected and the famous director has said those theories aren’t totally wrong.

“There's no Paimon involved [in Midsommar]," Aster told Fandango in 2019. "But I would say that the film is something of a companion to Hereditary, although the similarities didn't really occur to me until we were on set. And thematic ties became apparent to me. But nothing so overt as Paimon worshipping."

He also explained in a video posted on X in 2019 that “both films are very much about family. I also feel that both films kind of deal with codependency, in a way.”

Is Hereditary inspired by true events?

Hereditary is entirely fictional. That said, Aster has cited his own fears and existential horrors about dying as inspiration for his storytelling, in addition to trauma within his own family unit.

“I have an amazing relationship with my parents and with my younger brother. I have incredibly supportive parents who are both artists,” he told Vox. “But I can say that there has been a lot of suffering in my family. I can’t really talk about it. It didn’t befall me, but it’s befallen people that I care very deeply about.”

Aster continued, “I wanted to make a film about suffering that took suffering seriously ... It occurred to me that the horror genre was the right playground for this because I wanted to say something uncompromising, and I wasn’t in a place where I had the bittersweet ending in me.”

Where can I watch Hereditary?

Hereditary is available to stream on Netflix.

Additionally, the horror film is available to purchase or rent on Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango and more on-demand platforms.

Read the original article on People