Hereditary is full of clues and moments of foreshadowing that enhance the viewing experience, and one theory points out one subtle detail that makes Peter’s (Alex Wolff) fate even more terrifying. Ari Aster has quickly become one of the most respected names in the horror genre, and it all started with his feature directorial debut, Hereditary, in 2018. Hereditary combines psychological horror with family drama, and thanks to its outstanding performances, story, pace, and shocking visuals became a critical and commercial success.
Hereditary follows the Graham family, formed by Steve (Gabriel Byrne), Annie (Tony Collette), Peter, and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). The Grahams start being haunted by a mysterious presence after Annie’s distant mother dies, unleashing a series of strange and tragic events that, ultimately, unveil a dark and shocking secret about Annie’s mother and her legacy. At the end of Hereditary, Peter, out of shock and desperation after seeing the dead bodies of his parents and more, jumps from the attic window, only to be reanimated by the possession of the demon King Paimon. Peter is then crowned by his grandmother’s coven, which might have included someone very close to Peter.
Hereditary Theory: One Of Peter’s Friends Was Part Of The Cult
One Reddit pointed out a very easy-to-miss detail in the final moments of Hereditary, when Peter enters Charlie’s treehouse and finds the cult’s (and the decapitated bodies of his mother and grandmother), ready to crown him as King Paimon. Among the of the coven/cult is a man with black hair tied into a ponytail, who as the Reddit points out, looks very similar to one of Peter’s friends. Hereditary is a contained story in the sense of rarely focusing or introducing characters outside the Graham family, so there’s not much focus on Peter’s friends, except at the party where Charlie goes into anaphylactic shock and later when Peter is hiding and smoking weed with his friends at school.
In that scene, on the left side of the screen, sitting across from Peter is a young man with black hair who also wears his hair in a ponytail/bun, just like the man seen at the end at the treehouse. Another Reddit added that the weed they were smoking that made Peter react similarly to Charlie’s allergic reaction was actually a herb provided by the cult. Peter had been shown smoking weed before that scene and had no adverse reaction to it, and while his reaction in that scene is understood to be a consequence of the trauma of Charlie’s death, the weed itself might have had something to do. The Reddit suggested the weed could have been a herb like the one Joan, a member of the coven who befriends Annie, put in her tea, this as preparation for the ritual in which Peter would be later crowned – and the one who put the herb in the pipe was Peter’s friend with the ponytail, as he was part of the cult.
Hereditary’s Cult Explained
Hereditary leaves a lot of questions about the cult on purpose, as the audience is supposed to learn about it along with the Grahams, but what’s revealed about the cult is quite disturbing. Annie’s mother, Ellen, was Queen Leigh, the leader of a coven that worships the demon King Paimon, who wishes to inhabit the body of a male host. According to one of Ellen’s books, the summoner of Paimon will receive wealth and rewards, and it’s later revealed that the reason Ellen was so interested in Charlie when she was born was that she had planned on using her as Paimon’s host until they could find a male host. Annie kept Peter away from her mother, but Ellen took a lot of interest in being around Charlie. It’s also revealed that Annie’s brother killed himself years before the events of the movie, and he was believed to have had schizophrenia as he claimed that his mother was trying to put people inside of him, meaning that Ellen tried to use her own son as Paimon’s host, leading to his death.
Even scarier is that the of Ellen’s cult were everywhere around the Grahams, and after Ellen’s death, some of them manipulated the Grahams to get what they wanted. Annie’s friend from the group she attended to come to with Ellen’s death turned out to be one of Ellen’s followers, and she got her to summon Charlie’s spirit, unleashing a series of horrible events for the Grahams that culminated in the deaths of Steve and Annie, and in Peter becoming Paimon’s host.
How This Theory Makes Peter’s Hereditary Fate Even More Tragic
Peter’s friend being part of Ellen’s Paimon cult in Hereditary proves that there was no way for him and the rest of his family to escape from the cult and Ellen’s legacy. Joan used Annie’s grief and trauma to get in her head and ultimately prepare her and the rest of her family for Peter’s coronation, but even if she hadn’t earned Annie’s trust, Peter’s friend would have stepped in so everything could go according to the coven’s plans. There really would have been no way for Peter to escape from the cult and Paimon, meaning that he was meant to be the host of a demon king no matter how hard he tried to escape.
