CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS!
In shock, Peter stares straight ahead for an extremely long time trying to process what just happened. This is also a foreshadowing of what Peter will experience at the end of the movie. He slowly looks upward toward the rear view mirror , but quickly looks away because he is afraid of what he may see. He arrives home and goes directly to bed. The fact that he does not tell Steve or Annie what happened exemplifies how fractured this family is. There is a female voice: “They’re home.” Followed by a male voice: “Good.” And neither voice belongs to Steve or Annie.
The next morning Peter is still laying in the bed fully awake. He hears Annie tell Steven that she has to go pick up some supplies and she would be back in twenty minutes. Seconds later, Annie screams as she discovers Charlie’s headless body. Peter remains motionless in the bed. Charlie’s smashed head is laying on the side of the road covered in ants. Annie is is on her hands and knees in her room wailing as Steven holds on to her. She screams, “I just want to die!” Annie prostrate on the floor will convey meaningful symbolism at the end of the film. Peter stands at the door listening to his mother scream in anguish. After the funeral, Steven checks on Annie laying on the bed. The word Zazas is written on the wall.
In class, Peter keeps looking upward as if he is staring in the rear view mirror. He catches Bridget looking at him and she quickly turns away. Peter appears to to be glaring at her with disdain. Maybe he blames himself for leaving Charlie to go get high with her. Or, he may blame her for using him for the weed. Later, Peter is smoking a bowl with his friends underneath the bleachers. He begins to have an allergic reaction the same way Charlie did. He asks one of his friends to hold his hand. Maybe this is a legitimate anxiety attack, or is Charlie’s spirit influencing Peter? It doesn’t seem reasonable that Peter would want to be consoled in such a childlike manner.
As Peter returns home from school, Annie sneaks away to the support group, but decides not to go inside. As she is about to drive away, Joan, a prominent cult member, stops her. She tells Annie that her son and grandson had drowned just to play on Annie’s sympathy to gain her trust. Joan gives her her phone number. The next day, Annie is painting one her miniatures, and as she reaches for a bottle of paint, another bottle falls over by itself. The paints spills on to the piece of paper with Joans number. This is actually a manipulation by Paimon. Later that night, Steven tries offer Annie some affection, but she rejects him and goes to sleep in the tree house. In the mail slot on the door a seance pamphlet: Calling All Skeptics, Message From the Other Side, slides on top of mail that has already been delivered.
Annie Arrives at Joan’s apartment and notices the welcome mat in front of the door. She tells Joan that her mother used to make them. Annie admits to her that she had sleep walked into Peter and Charlie’s bedroom and doused them with paint thinner, she also drenched herself. Peter woke up as soon as she struck the match and she immediately put it out. She explains that’s why Peter does not trust her til this day and why they are so distant. As Annie drinks her tea, she spits out a black chip or a speck of herb. This may be a piece of her mothers burnt flesh. It is conceivable that when Ellen breast fed Charlie it allowed Paimon access to her. This may have made it possible for Paimon to possess Annie later in the film.
Steve comes into Annie’s workshop to tell her he has just made dinner. She is recreating the scene of Charlie’s death with a miniature. Steve tells her how that could effect Peter, but Annie claims it’s just a neutral display of the accident. Later on at the dinner table, the tension gets explosive and Annie erupts on Peter. She says that he is so full of disdain and resentment, and that she can’t accept and forgive because nobody will take responsibility for anything they have done. Then Peter points out the fact Charlie didn’t want to go to the party but Annie forced her to go.
The next day Annie runs into Joan in the parking lot of an arts and crafts store. Joan convinces Annie to come back to her apartment to perform a seance. In the back of Joan’s vehicle there are two newly purchased chalkboards. Joan successfully conjures her grandson, which is Paimon all along . He slides a glass across the table, and Annie looks underneath to see if it is a trick. He writes, I LUV U GRAMMY on the chalk board. A small light rises up and hovers around Annie’s head. She is so overwhelmed by the seance that she makes Joan stop. Joan gives her the instructions on how perform the seance and a candle. She tells Annie that every member in the family must be there when she does the seance.
Later that night, Annie dreams that there are a trail of ants coming through her bedroom window leading to Peter’s room. She steps inside and sees that Peter’s face is completely covered in ants. They are crawling in his nose, over his eyes, and in and out of his mouth. Peter awakes to see Annie standing there with a horrified look on her face. She asks, “Is Charlie here?” Then he asks her, “Why are you so afraid of me?” She bluntly says, “I never wanted to be your mother.” She explains how she tried have miscarriages. Peter begins yelling, “You tried to kill me!” Now, Annie and Peter are both covered in paint thinner. Annie is mercifully apologizing to Peter when he suddenly catches on fire. She instantly wakes up. Annie goes into the bathroom and recites the seance incantation.
Annie wakes Peter and Steven and has them come downstairs to perform the Seance in order to contact Charlie. Steve is reluctant, but Peter agrees to participate. They begin the seance, and the glass moves across the table. Peter said he felt the air flex. Annie begins to growl and her voice turns into Charlie’s. Fire from the candle on the table blazes up and glass shatters. Annie is hysterical, calling out in Charlie’s voice, “Mom, I’m scared.” Steven throws water into Annie’s face. Peter becomes frightened, and hugs Steven while crying childishly. Once again, this could be Charlie’s spirit influencing Peter.
In class, Peter watches a colorful light appear, quickly expand, and vanish out of the class. He looks over and sees his own reflection in a glass cabinet staring back at him with a menacing smile. He hears a loud ‘tongue click’ and leaves class.
Annie works on a miniature when she receives a call from Steven informing her that Peter thinks he’s being threatened by vengeful ghosts, and he has a son to protect. Annie gets another call from a gallery checking on the progress of their project. Overwhelmed, Annie destroys all her dioramas in the workshop. Steven and Peter return home, and Steven comments on the terrible smell of Ellen’s corpse in the attic. He walks into the workshop and sees all the destroyed miniatures, and Annie sitting on the floor.
Charlie stands in the corner of Peter’s room staring at him. He is awakened by a loud ‘click’ and sees Charlie in the corner. Her head tilts forward and falls off as a ball rolls out of the darkness. Suddenly, a pair of hands reach from the headboard and grabs Peter by the head. This could be Annie or a cult member. The dog begins to whine implying that it is really happening. Peter pops up and Annie is standing beside the bed. She tells him that she is going to fix everything.
Annie hears scribbling from Charlie’s room. She steps inside and sees pictures of Peter appearing on the sketch pad. Annie takes the pad and tries to burn it in the fireplace. As the pad starts to burn her sleeve catches on fire. The next day when Peter leaves for school, Annie rushes to Joan’s apartment and knocks frantically on the door. This is a callback to the girl rapidly chopping the nuts at the party. Inside Joan’s apartment are lit candles, and on the table are some of Charlie’s figurines. One in particular has the dismembered head of the pigeon on top. There is a picture of Peter inside a triangle carved into the tabletop . An open cabinet displays the symbol of Paimon. As Annie leaves, a light on a camera above the door in hall turns red, signaling to Joan and the cult members Annie was there.
At school, Peter sits at a table having lunch outside. Joan yells at him from across the street. “I expel you! Satonany! Dagony! Aparagon! Peter, get out!” Joan is literally trying to cast Peter out of his own body.
Annie rummages through Ellen’s boxes. She removes two floor mats: One has Annie embroidered on it, and the other has Charles with the symbol. She discovers in a book of invocations that her mother is involved in the cult which summons Paimon. There is a picture of Paimon riding a camel with three severed heads hanging on the side. A close up on Annie’s wrist which bares a scar with a mysterious design.
Highlighted in the book: ‘When successfully invoked, King Paimon will possess the most vulnerable host. Only when the ritual is complete will King Paimon lock into his ordained host. Once locked in, a new ritual is required to unlock the possession.’ So in order to release Paimon from Charlie’s vessel, she had to be beheaded. The next paragraph describes how over time the sexes of the host have varied, but male host are the most successful incarnate. And according to documentation when offered a female host he becomes livid and vengeful. The very last line of the paragraph is underlined: King Paimon is a male, thus covetous of a male human body. The page before shows a human male sitting on a large pile of treasure with a caption underneath: Riches to the conjurer.
Annie flips through a photo album and sees a picture of Ellen with a young Joan. A current photo of Ellen and Joan standing beside each other both wearing a necklace with the symbol. Another photo shows her mother in a white wedding dress being showered with gold coins by fellow cult members. Another photo show Annie’s family, Steven has his arm around Annie and Charlie, Peter is standing off to himself. Implying he is to be Paimons host. Another photo of the same picture framed, but it is at night with candles lit on the corners of the frame. The cult members are staring at the photo.
Continued in Movie Analysis :Complete Breakdown of Hereditary Part Three of Three
Movie Analysis : Complete Breakdown of Hereditary Part One of Three
