Reincarnation (original title Hereditary) is a very atmospheric horror film directed by Ari Arister. The picture gives references to real satanic cults and rituals, so what is happening on the screen is truly mesmerizing and frightening. At the same time, for many viewers, the meaning of the film “Reincarnation” remained incomprehensible. The events of the storyline really look somewhat chaotic, so it’s very difficult to figure out what’s what when you first view it. Let’s try to clarify the situation by analyzing the ending and the general idea of this creepy, but spectacular movie.
What is the movie “Hereditary” about?
For an easier analysis of what ultimately happened in the final of the horror film submitted for consideration, it is necessary to remember how it all began.
After the death of her mother, the author of the miniatures, Annie, is preparing for another exhibition. Ellen Lee was a complex woman. She forced her daughter to give birth to her first child, did not allow her to have an abortion. She took her son to the grave. And then she committed suicide. Annie’s husband, Steve, insisted that she stop communicating with her mother. Happiness reigned in the family until the birth of Charlie’s daughter. Then the grandmother asked for a visit and surrounded her granddaughter with attention and care.
Charlie is a closed and self-absorbed child. She makes figurines from what is at hand, even from a severed pigeon’s head. From childhood, the girl is interested in who will take care of her after she leaves for another world. This is strange.
Annie was unaffected by the passing of her mother. But she suffers from sleepwalking and once almost burns her own offspring, dousing them with turpentine and regains consciousness, almost striking a match. Annie then lets Charlie go to the party with Peter. The following happens there – the girl who ate the cake begins to choke. Her brother urgently intends to take her home, but on the way, the girl leaning out of the car is blown off her head. On the pillar is a symbol of what caused the girl to die. Her mother has the exact same one.
There is a heat of relations in the family. Annie yells at her son as he tries to recover from his sister’s death. Annie’s mother’s grave is desecrated, but her husband does not tell Lee about it, afraid to hurt her already disheveled feelings.
Annie consoles herself in a conversation with Joan – outside the church at a meeting of mourners. The woman hints at Annie about the possibility of contact with the spirit of Charlie, and invites her to visit. Lee doubts, but still comes to Joan, becoming a member of the séance. Annie then holds a similar seance at her home, intending to summon the spirit of her dead daughter, with Steve and Peter helping her. This attempt ends with Peter hallucinating, even injuring himself.
“Hereditary” plot explained
direct message of the film
The film “Reincarnation” opens the occult world, which belonged to Annie’s mother. She was the head of the sect, and she had a difficult mission: to find and prepare a vessel for receiving the spirit of the king of hell. The ideal subject was Peter, but his mother prevented his grandmother’s plan from coming true. Then the curse was transferred to Charlie, because of which, most likely, she dies. The plot again returns to Peter, since a man is most preferable for the spirit of the underworld. And with the help of one sectarian, the plan managed to come true.
In an effort to protect her family, Annie fought the forces of evil, but eventually gave in under their onslaught. She loses control of herself and becomes mentally unstable, causing Annie to join the cult and aid them in killing Peter. In the end, she cuts off her own head, which leads to the logical conclusion that Charlie’s death, also associated with decapitation, is not accidental.
As a result, evil triumphed, because the whole family was killed, and Peter was in the power of a demon that possessed him during the fall of the young man from the window.
A different meaning of the film, bearing a psychological load
This film carries a psychological load, which is shown through one particular family. Annie takes psychiatric courses to cope with the loss of loved ones. The creators emphasize the heroine’s genetic predisposition to psycho-emotional breakdowns: her mother is the head of a sect, and her father and brother suffer from mental illness. This gives rise to the idea that many of the supernatural situations that occur in the film are just the fruit of a sick fantasy and an inflamed imagination that sees the current situation in its own way.
In this case, a logical question arises: “What really happened?” maybe this mental disorder has progressed so much that the family began to see what is not really there? Or did the demons really make themselves felt and prey on this family? And Peter was not possessed by a demon, but simply did not turn to a psychologist for help in time, and the disease overcame him, pushing him to a conscious fall out of the window? The answers to these questions can be interpreted in different ways, depending on the perception of the film. You might think that everything that is happening is the fruit of a depression that has broken out, and not a cruel reality.
“Hereditary” ending explained
In the finale, as is usually the case, the events in the horror film “Reincarnation” are gaining momentum. The next day, Annie goes to Joan for help – she probably wants to know how to break the connection with the ghost of her dead daughter in order to stop all this madness. But Joan is not at home – Annie no one answers the door. But the creators of the horror show the audience Joan’s table, on which Charlie’s personal belongings lie. It looks like Joan performed a witchcraft ritual to summon the girl’s spirit.
At the end of the film, Peter is losing his mind and sees in front of the schoolyard, behind the fence, Joan, who screams that she is expelling him. He also pronounces cryptic words. But it’s just a hallucination, right?
Frightened, Annie returns home and starts rummaging through her mother’s old things. In one of the boxes, she finds a handwritten book in an unknown language, the cover of which adorns the same symbol in the form of which her dead mother’s medallion was made. Also, Annie finds a spell book that belonged to Ellen. From the book, the woman learns about King Paimon (Paimon) – one of the demons of Hell, which is infused into a suitable body. Annie learns that Paimon is male and prefers to inhabit male bodies, but to instill the spirit, you must first complete the rite.
In the ending of “Reincarnation” a lot is clarified. We learn that Paimon bestows riches on the caster who summoned him into a new body. But it seems that we are talking not only about countless treasures, but also about immortality. In her mother’s photo album, Annie discovers photographs of Joan standing next to Ellen and attending the rituals she performed.
Peter continues to have hallucinations at school, and Steve writes a letter to a fellow psychiatrist at work admitting that his wife Annie is on edge. It turns out that the administration of the cemetery where Ellen was buried is discussing the issue of compensation for the desecration of the grave of Ellen Lee. The pictures show that unknown people stole the coffin with the body of Annie’s mother. Meanwhile, Annie climbs up to the attic and, brushing off a whole swarm of flies, sees the corpse of her mother hidden under the roof. Nearby, under the ceiling, the main character discovers the painted sign of King Paimon.
In the finale, Peter becomes very ill – it seems he is suffocating. Almost the same as his sister Charlie suffocated during anaphylactic shock. The guy starts having convulsions and he beats his head against the desk, and then jumps up and starts screaming. It can be suspected that some evil spirit begins to inhabit him. The Graham house receives a call from the school, but Annie heads to the treehouse in the pouring rain. As a result, the school administration calls Steve at work. The father picks up his son from school and takes him home, and at home they are met by a frightened and worried Annie.
At the end of the horror, a sobbing Annie tells Steve that she found in the attic the blackened and bloated body of her mother, who has no head. While Steve climbs into the attic, Annie lights the fire. Judging by the screams of the man, Ellen’s corpse really lies under the roof of their house. When he asks his wife why she didn’t call the police, Annie reveals that the cops won’t help. She says that she went to Joan’s house, who held a séance with her and summoned the spirit of her grandson – and shows photos of a new acquaintance and her mother. Annie is sure that Joan and Ellen had pendants with the same occult symbol – the one that is now painted in blood on their attic. Steve begins to suspect that it was Annie who opened up her mother’s grave and dragged the corpse into the house.
But in the end, Annie denies all accusations and says that she was forced to call on Charlie – and at that very moment, during the séance, the Graham family was cursed. They made a deal with someone… or something. Annie is sure that evil is now pursuing their son. And you need to burn a notebook with drawings depicting a suffering or dead Peter. Annie herself cannot burn the drawings, as she, too, begins to burn.
Annie persuades Steve to burn the notebook with pictures for Peter’s sake – and the man succumbs to the persuasion of his crazy wife. The woman blames herself for everything that happens and is afraid for her son, whom she accidentally cursed. Annie cries and says that she loves Steven and Peter very much – and asks to throw the cursed notebook into the fire.
Steve decides that he can’t indulge his crazy wife and says that he will call the police right now. But Annie decides to sacrifice herself for her son, snatches the notebook from her husband’s hands and throws it into the fireplace. At the same moment, the psychiatrist bursts into flames and burns alive in a roaring flame. In front of a shocked and crying Annie.
Night falls and Peter wakes up. The guy near the very end of the horror movie goes to wander around the dark house and his attention is attracted by a roar. Downstairs, by the fireplace, Peter discovers his father’s charred body, and then a completely distraught Annie pounces on him. The woman chases and runs after her son until he goes up to the attic and locks the door. Annie climbs onto the ceiling and, while her son asks her forgiveness for everything, beats her head against the attic door.
When Annie calms down briefly, Peter notices the flies. Unknown people lit candles in the attic and in their light the guy sees a dark headless silhouette (possibly a shadow) and his photograph with his eyes gouged out. Peter does not believe that all this is really happening and tries to wake up to get rid of the nightmare. And then he hears suspicious sounds under the roof.
At the end of “Reincarnation” they show that Annie is hanging in the air under the roof – a woman is trying to cut off her head with a piano string. Annie starts sawing her neck more vigorously, and Peter notices naked people in a dark corner – and jumps out the window in horror.
In the last moments of the horror, Peter wakes up in a flower bed – nothing out of the ordinary seems to be happening anymore. The guy notices the light in the tree house and goes to him, goes upstairs. Inside, he sees Paimon’s followers – the cultists are on their knees. They kneel in front of a mannequin with the head of his dead sister Charlie, on which someone has put a crown. A photograph of Ellen’s grandmother hangs on the wall, the portrait is signed “Queen Lee”. Nearby, he sees the decapitated bodies of Ellen and Annie. Joan appears: the woman greets Peter, whom she calls Charlie, says that everything is fine now – and puts a crown on his head. Joan says that Peter-Charlie is now Paimon – one of the eight kings of Hell. The cultists pledge allegiance to Paimon and ask him to enrich them and reveal secrets to them.
It should be understood that initially Charlie was possessed by the demon Paimon – Joan almost directly says that the King of Hell was originally in a female body, but now he has received a healthy and male one. Actually, the demonic possession explains that unhealthy interest on the part of Ellen to her granddaughter. And the whole series of nightmarish deaths in the Graham family is the work of devil worshipers who decided to bring the ritual of summoning evil to the end.
