SpaceShort answer: At the end of Hereditary (2018), Peter jumps from the attic window, and the demon King Paimon takes over his body. Annie, possessed, has just decapitated herself. In the treehouse, cult members bow to Peter as Joan crowns him and tells him: "Charlie, you're okay now. You're our king, Paimon." Everything that happened to the Graham family, from Ellen's death to Charlie's, was part of a ritual led by Peter's grandmother Ellen to give Paimon a male host.
Spoilers ahead. Last updated: October 1, 2026.
What Happens at the End of Hereditary
After Annie realises the cult wants Peter, she begs Steve to throw Charlie's sketchbook into the fire, convinced she will burn instead of the book. Steve bursts into flames. Annie is then fully possessed.
Peter wakes to find naked cult members standing in the dark around the house. He flees into the attic, where he sees his mother floating near the ceiling, sawing at her own neck with a wire. Peter throws himself out of the attic window. A glowing light enters his body as he lies on the ground; when he gets up, he is no longer Peter.
He follows Annie's headless body as it floats up into the treehouse. Inside, a figure wearing a crown and topped with Charlie's head sits under a portrait of Ellen, with the cult members kneeling. Joan places the crown on Peter and addresses him as Charlie and as Paimon.
Who Is Paimon?
Paimon is one of the kings of hell listed in the Ars Goetia, the first part of the 17th-century grimoire known as the Lesser Key of Solomon. In that tradition he is a king who can grant knowledge, wealth and familiars. The film draws on this: the book Annie finds among Ellen's things describes Paimon as wanting a male host and promising riches to those who summon him.
That is why the cult needs Peter. Paimon was placed in Charlie, a girl, as a temporary vessel; the ritual moves him into the body he actually wants.
Was Charlie Paimon All Along?
Yes, the film strongly implies it. Annie says Ellen took charge of Charlie as a baby and was close to her in a way Annie never allowed with Peter. The final scene confirms it: Joan calls the crowned Peter "Charlie", meaning the spirit inside Peter is the same one that lived in Charlie. Charlie's tongue click, which Peter starts making after her death, is the clearest sign that she is now inside him.
Was It All Planned?
The film suggests the cult arranged almost everything. Charlie's fatal allergic reaction and the telephone pole, Joan "befriending" Annie at a grief group, the séance Joan teaches her, the words and symbols on the walls, the stranger who smiles at Annie at Ellen's funeral: each moves the family one step further toward the ritual. Whether the family ever had a real choice is the film's central horror.
The Paimon sigil appears throughout the house and on Ellen's pendant, a sign that the space was prepared long before the family realised it.
Annie's Miniatures
Annie builds miniature models of her own life, including the scene of Charlie's death. They are her way of controlling and processing what has happened. The film's opening shot, which moves into a model of Peter's bedroom until it becomes the real room, hints at the real joke: the family are figures in a model someone else is arranging.
What the Ending Means
Ari Aster has described Hereditary as a family tragedy about grief before it is a demon film. The supernatural plot makes literal what grief and inherited trauma do: they pass down through a family, and the people inside it can't escape them simply by understanding them. The title works both ways: the Grahams inherit a cult and a demon, and also the mental illness and resentment Annie talks about in her family's history.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens at the end of Hereditary?
Peter jumps from the attic window and the demon King Paimon takes over his body. The cult crowns him in the treehouse, completing a ritual his grandmother Ellen started years earlier.
Is Annie dead at the end of Hereditary?
Yes. While possessed, Annie decapitates herself with a wire in the attic. Her headless body later floats up into the treehouse and kneels with the cult.
Was Charlie possessed by Paimon?
The film implies Paimon lived in Charlie from infancy, placed there by Ellen. Because Paimon wants a male host, the cult needed to move him into Peter, which is why Joan calls Peter "Charlie" at the end.
Is Peter dead at the end of Hereditary?
Peter's body survives, but Peter himself is gone. After he jumps from the window, Paimon takes control of his body.
Does Hereditary have a connection to Midsommar?
No story connection. Both are Ari Aster films about grief and cults, but they are separate stories.
Want more like it? See our picks for movies like Hereditary, or check where to watch any title.