8 More Movie Plot Twists So Subtle You Totally Missed Them
6. Charlie Was Always Possessed By Paimon - Hereditary
The Movie
Ari Aster's recent horror film is one of the most startling directorial debuts of the last few years, and a rarest of genre effors to truly get under the skin.
Fantastically acted, technically amazing and lending characters as much import as the gnarly scares, Hereditary is a horror film practically in a class of its own.
The Twist You Didn't Notice
Aster's film is such an assault on the senses - and the psyche - that it's virtually impossible to take everything in on a first sit.
Moreover, Aster has densely packed his film with subtle hints at the plot's direction which make second, third and fourth viewings enormously satisfying.
And with that in mind, repeat watches make it far easier to deduce the twist hiding in front of the viewer the whole time, that poor, young Charlie (Milly Shapiro) was actually possessed by King Paimon from birth.
A surface-level reading of the film basically just depicts Charlie as a bit of a weirdo before she has her unfortunate run-in with a telephone pole, but once we have time to ponder all the facts, it becomes clear that Charlie was merely a holding vessel of sorts for Paimon.
Firstly, there's the numerous references to Annie's (Toni Collette) mother Ellen's bizarre fascination with Charlie - even breastfeeding her as a baby and presumably grooming her from birth to "accept" Paimon. Secondly, Annie notes that Ellen wanted a grandson, reflecting Paimon's own desire for a male host rather than a female one.
And best of all, Aster himself even confirmed it: "I mean, there’s a girl that was displaced, but she was displaced from the very beginning."
Basically, if you thought Charlie's thousand-yard stare, incessant clucking and psychopathic method for eating chocolate were all signs something was really wrong with her, then you were absolutely right.
Rather than being a mere misfit, though, the girl before you is nothing more than a blank slate, a bottle to hold Paimon until, at the end of the film, he can enter her brother Peter (Alex Wolff).