10 Times Movies Secretly Spoiled Their Own Story

Ari Aster's Hereditary is a devastating and ingenious exercise in leaving the viewer mentally drained, and beyond the traumatic turmoil of its plot, Aster also ensured to sprinkle a ton of clues for eagle-eyed viewers to catch.

For starters, the coven eventually revealed to be using poor Peter (Alex Wolff) as a vessel for the demon Paimon are shown to be subtly manipulating the family throughout the film.

Members of the coven seen later in the movie are present at the opening funeral of Annie's (Toni Collette) mother (Kathleen Chalfant), while Annie's mother is buried with a necklace bearing the distinctive seal of Paimon, and several ritualistic incantations are scrawled around the family home, such as "Satony" above Charlie's (Milly Shapiro) bed.

Elsewhere coven members can be seen nakedly standing outside the house at night if you crank the contrast on your TV up, Annie mentions that her brother killed himself for fear that his mother was trying to "put people inside of him," and Annie's mother is of course especially fond of Charlie because she has been hosting Paimon all along (hence Charlie's glottal stop noises and general weirdness).

Hell, you can even see Annie's new friend from the support group, Joan (Ann Dowd), buying a new chalkboard with which to trick Annie, given that she later pretends that the chalkboard belonged to her dead son.

These are just some of the hints which add up to outline just how calculatedly the coven has been breaking the family's spirit and insinuating itself into every aspect of their lives.