History Characters / Hereditary

->'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/ToniCollette
-->''"I just don't want to put any more stress on my family."''

->'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/AlexWolff
-->''"Mom, stop it! Dad, I don't like this!"''

->'''Portrayed By:''' Milly Shapiro
-->''*cluck*''

->'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/GabrielByrne
-->''"I have a son to protect. That's what I care about now."''

->'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/AnnDowd
-->''"I expel you!"''

->'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/KathleenChalfant (uncredited)

* MadArtist: Justified and downplayed. A celebrated miniaturist, the nightmarish events in her personal life drive her mad. Her work as a miniaturist has little to do with her insanity.

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. She post-mortem mutilates a pigeon which had already killed itself via crashing into a window. So she doesn't abuse a living animal (although the movie seems to hint that [[spoiler:the demon possessing her]] drove the pigeon to kill itself), but her behavior is still used to unsettle the audience [[spoiler:and hint that she's under demonic possession]].

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. She post-mortem mutilates a pigeon which had already killed itself via crashing into a window. So she doesn't abuse a living animal (although the movie seems to hint that [[spoiler:Paimon]] drove the pigeon to kill itself), but her behavior is still used to unsettle the audience [[spoiler:and hint that she's under demonic possession]].

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Or rather, [[spoiler:demonically-possessed]] children mutilate pigeons with scissors.

* CreepyChild: A textbook example. For example, when she [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior decapitates a pigeon with scissors]].

* TomboyishName: Charlie is a girl. It's unclear if "Charlie" is a nickname for "Charlotte" or another feminine variation of "Charles." She definitely doesn't act how most teenage girls do.
** [[spoiler:Since Paimon dislikes and rejects female hosts, perhaps this androgynous name was an attempt to placate Paimon.]]

* VerbalTic: Charlie compulsively makes a little clucking sound with her tongue. [[spoiler:[[HellIsThatNoise Even after her death.]]]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyzasiyCq2o&t=3m17s This video]] suggests it's actually [[spoiler:Paimon's name, which is why Annie and Peter start hearing it when being influenced by Paimon and why Peter makes the click himself upon becoming possessed]].
** She also has a tendency to respond to criticism with a monotone, "That's okay."

* GenderBenderAngst: Said to become "livid and vengeful" when given a female vessel, so of course the cult that wants riches and good familiars from him decide to make him a baby girl. That said, he seems pretty chill about, but he might also be suffering from possession-induced amnesia.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Something is clearly a little bit off about Charlie. [[spoiler:It might be entirely attributable to the fact that she is the Earthly vessel of the demon king Paimon.]]

* AbusiveParents: Her mother was severely emotionally abusive to Annie and her older brother as children. [[spoiler: Not surprising, since Ellen saw her children as little more than potential vessels for an occult ritual to summon Paimon, the king of Hell.]] Annie herself has a badly strained relationship with her own children.

* DeathEqualsRedemption: Horribly subverted. [[spoiler: While she certainly ''tries'' to sacrifice herself in order to save Peter, she ultimately ends up getting possessed before trying to kill Peter and killing herself.]]
* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Somewhat impulsively forces Peter to take Charlie with him to a high school party, and the unthinkable happens.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Plans to kill herself after Charlie [[spoiler:dies]], but she actually never succeeds until [[spoiler:she's possessed by Paimon]].

** She covers her mouth in horror when she lets slip to Peter that "she never wanted to be his mother". [[spoiler: Although it turns out to be a bad dream]].
* NervousWreck: She's extremely neurotic and prone to stress, owing to her troubled upbringing. This gets many times worse after [[spoiler: Charlie dies and she is made to find her decapitated body in the back seat of the car]].
* OffingTheOffspring: Annie's relationship with Peter and Charlie has never been the same since an incident in which a sleepwalking Annie nearly set her children on fire. [[spoiler: In a later dream sequence, Annie reveals that she did everything in her power to induce a miscarriage while pregnant with Peter, and never wanted to be his mother. And in the final minutes of the film, a possessed Annie attempts to murder her son.]]
* OffWithHerHead: [[spoiler: Like mother, like daughter! Only unlike Charlie, Annie does it ''to herself.'']]
* OnlySaneWoman: Was this in her family growing up as her father had psychotic episodes, her brother was a paranoid schizophrenic, and her mother had dissociative identity disorder. [[spoiler: However, it's possible that these ailments were actually the result of Paimon rather than genuine mental illness.]]
* PajamaCladHero: In the final act of the movie, Annie attempts to [[spoiler: track down Joan and thwart the cult and Paimon's forces]] and does so while wearing her pajama bottoms and t-shirt with her coat over it.

* TraumaCongaLine: Visiting a grief support group after the death of her mother, Annie lays out more than a lifetime's worth of personal trauma - her father suffered a psychotic break and starved himself to death when she was little, then her older brother succumbed to paranoid schizophrenia ([[spoiler:[[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane or possibly an attempted demonic possession]]]]) and committed suicide as a teen, and her abusive mother spent her last dementia-riddled years in Annie's home while her relationship with her own children deteriorated. [[spoiler: Just hours after this support group visit, Annie's daughter is gruesomely decapitated in a freak accident with both Annie and her son partly to blame.]]

* BrokenBird: Male example. If he's not this after his [[spoiler: sister's death, by the end when he's sobbing in fear as he's terrorized by his possessed mother, he definitely counts.]] You just want to give the poor kid a hug.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Attempts to do this to his mother, but it never sinks in until it's far too late to help anyone. Justified, as she's reeling with grief and guilt.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Peter's entire world comes crashing down around him the moment he accidentally causes his sister's death, and he never recovers.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: By the final moments of the film, Peter has witnessed his sister's accidental decapitation, his father's immolated corpse, and his possessed mother attempting to kill him before sawing her own head off. At this point, all it takes is one final JumpScare from some random naked cultists to make Peter leap out the attic window. Opinions vary on whether he actually dies as a result of this, as it's never made fully clear by the film.]]

* InelegantBlubbering: Notably cries in a childish manner during many of the distressing scenes. However, given he's only 16, and the situations he finds himself in would make make almost anyone regress, and the possibility that [[spoiler:he's being possessed by Paimon, who still believes he's Charlie, a 13-year-old girl]], it's justified.
* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: [[spoiler: While technically Charlie was supposed to be TheChosenOne as a vessel for the demon king Paimon, the ritual requires a male body. This means Charlie has to die, and Peter's soul has to be driven out of his body to make room for its new inhabitant. Naturally, this is an extremely unpleasant process.]]

* MaleGaze: An early scene shows Peter's point of view in class, determinedly focused on the rear end of Bridget as she sits in front of him. [[spoiler: A later scene makes this HarsherInHindsight by depicting Peter's classroom point of view after the accident that killed Charlie - he's now unable to focus on anything, and memories of the traumatic incident keep creeping into his field of vision.]]
* MindRape: What [[spoiler:Paimon]] does to him on a supernatural level. Very literal. There's also the breakdown he suffers.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Peter's mom forces him to take his little sister with him to a party. Peter leaves her unsupervised to go smoke weed with Bridget. Charlie eats cake with nuts in it and suffers a severe allergic reaction. Peter, while stoned, tries to drive Charlie to the hospital. When she sticks her head out the window to get air and Peter swerves to avoid a dead animal in the road, Charlie's head hits a telephone pole, decapitating her. Peter is essentially unable to process what just happened, so he, in a state of complete shock, drives home with her headless corpse in the backseat, crawls into bed, and lets his mother find the body in the morning.]]

* TheStoner: Spends most of his free time smoking pot, whether with buddies or alone in his room. [[spoiler: As with MaleGaze above, he loses the ability to enjoy this simple pleasure as well after the accident.]]

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Or rather, [[spoiler: demonically-possessed]] children mutilate pigeons with scissors.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: Has a severe allergic reaction to nuts in a cake, which are implied to be given to her by Paimon, as she knows how severe her allergies are. While her stoned brother attempts to take her to the hospital, she sticks her head out of the window to get some air and is decapitated. Made even worse by the fact that Peter, catatonic due to trauma, leaves her headless body for her mother to find.]]

* DecapitationPresentation: [[spoiler: Charlie's severed head is the centerpiece of the Satanic tableau the cultists set up in the treehouse at the end of the film.]]

* OffWithHerHead: [[spoiler: Her head is ripped off in a horrific road accident.]]

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Chocolate. [[spoiler: This factors in her accidental death when she eats chocolate cake with peanuts mixed into it (she is severely allergic to peanuts), leading a stoned Peter to drive her to the hospital.]]
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: After a pigeon flies into her classroom window and dies from the impact, she later goes to the dead bird, cuts off its head and puts it in her pocket. This could be attributed to her being [[spoiler: the temporary host for Paimon before her death.]]
* VerbalTic: Charlie compulsively makes a little clucking sound with her tongue. [[spoiler: [[HellIsThatNoise Even after her death.]]]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyzasiyCq2o&t=3m17s This video]] suggests it's actually [[spoiler:Paimon's name, which is why Annie and Peter start hearing it when being influenced by Paimon and why Peter makes the click himself upon becoming possessed]].

* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler: ''Hereditary'' is marketed as a story about a family tormented by supernatural phenomena after suffering a loss. Most promotional materials indicate that this loss is Annie's mother, who passes away before the beginning of the film. In actuality, the bulk of the film deals with the aftermath of Charlie's much more jarring and traumatic death.]]
* WantedASonInstead: Or ''grand''son in this case. Her grandmother flat-out told her she wanted her to be a boy instead. [[spoiler: It turns out this was because she was hoping for a suitable male host for Paimon right off the bat. When Charlie turned out to be a girl, this didn't stop the plans, just caused them to get shifted around as Charlie served as a temporary host.]]

* ManOnFire: [[spoiler: Burns to death through SympatheticMagic when Annie knocks Charlie's sketchbook out of his hands and into the fireplace.]]
* MundaneSolution: How does Steve manage [[spoiler: the death of his daughter]] and the ensuing grief and horror? Silently nursing resentment, taking illicit drugs, or delving into the occult like his son and wife? No: get medicated. One might almost think there's some moral to be implied by how functional Steve remains compared to the insanity unleashed by the other's coping mechanisms.

* SupernaturalProofFather: He doesn't believe in seances, ghosts, or the occult and thinks [[spoiler: Ellen's body being placed in their attic and Annie's rantings about a demon worshiping cult is the result of Annie having a nervous breakdown.]] He is also the only character to not encounter or experience anything supernatural [[spoiler: until towards the end when he's burned to death by Paimon when Charlie's cursed sketchbook is thrown in the fire.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: Joan's plan succeeds. The entire Graham family dies and the demon king Paimon is brought to Earth in Peter's body, with Joan there to welcome him.]]
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: She displays sympathy and kindness to Annie for her plight, and seems to have only the best intentions in helping her heal, going out of her way to perform a seance to contact Charlie. But her real goal is kill the entire Graham family and to vacate Peter's spirit from his body to make way for Paimon.]]
* ColorMotif: Joan is always seen wearing red [[spoiler: except for the ending where she's wearing a white cultist robe]]. A symbolic reading of this can be [[spoiler: a warning that Joan is not who she appears to be and the danger she represents]].
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Joan informs Annie that she lost her son and grandson to a drowning accident. [[spoiler: It's left unclear whether this is true, just a partial truth, or a complete fabrication to endear herself to the grieving and vulnerable Annie. [[https://youtu.be/ADzUs3xhxcY?t=382 A closer look at the trunk of her car]] in one scene strongly hints that it's a complete fabrication.]]
* DissonantSerenity: Repeatedly. She's completely unfazed by cults or Annie's breakdown.
* TheDragon: [[spoiler: Joan is a witch and cult leader in service to Paimon, and responsible for the hauntings that terrorize the Graham family.]]

* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: Joan only befriended Annie as part of a larger plan to sacrifice the latter's family and summon a demon.]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Joan informs Annie that she lost her son and grandson to a drowning accident. [[spoiler: It's left unclear whether this is true, just a partial truth, or a complete fabrication to endear herself to the grieving and vulnerable Annie.]]

* BodyHorror: ''Sweet Mary'' [[spoiler:her rotting decapitated head is terrifying to look at.]]

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Chocolate.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: After a pigeon flies into her classroom window and dies from the impact, she later goes to the dead bird, cuts off its head and puts it in her pocket.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler: Somewhat impulsively forces Peter to take Charlie with him to a high school party, and the unthinkable happens.]]

* AdultFear: [[spoiler:Loses his daughter in a freak accident, and then has to worry that his already-unstable wife will blame their son for what happened, leaving Steve to protect Peter from his own mother.]]

* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Joan doesn't lose any cheeriness in the ending, where she has overseen the destruction of an entire family to summon a demon.]]

* PluckyGirl: She is an older example than most but still comes across as one with her warm personality, given the losses of her son and grandchild she describes with sorrow before offering a helping hand to Annie.

!!Annie Graham (nee Leigh)

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:Is he still alive at the end after he throws himself out of the window, or does Paimon just control his dead body? Some of his behaviors at the end indicate part of his personality is still active and Paimon only gained control because Peter was just too broken-down to fight him any longer.]]

* CallingTheYoungManOut: Takes Peter to task over his role in Charlie's death, and when he fires back with an expletive, she responds with an explosive, bitter diatribe that rakes him over the coals for every single character flaw he possesses (real or perceived).

* KnightTemplarParent: Actually one of the most harrowing things about the movie is that this is probably ''played straight''. Annie's most horrible behaviour - such as [[spoiler:trying to ''burn'' Peter and Charlie alive]] are strongly implied to be subconscious attempts to protect them from Paimon.

* AnimalMotifs: Charlie's appearance and mannerisms are oddly indicative of birds or related to avian qualities such as her "clucking", frequently sleeping in a tree house which also resembles a large nest, a penchant for candy and sweets (similar to a hummingbird with nectar), many of the figurines/toys she makes resemble birds or use actual bird parts, and she has several drawings of birds in her sketchbook.

* TheCassandra: Implied, but not probably intentionally on her part. Annie is deeply traumatised by some of the things Ellen said while suffering from a DID-induced breakdown at the end of her life...though it probably wasn't.

* EvilMatriarch: Falls into this much more clearly than Annie. She possibly caused her own son's death, traumatised Annie, and then plotted with the cult to destroy her grandchildren. Then there's the fact that she is the matriarchal monarch of a whole ''cult''.

* CreepyChild: A textbook example. For example, when she cut the head off of a dead pigeon.

* VerbalTic: Charlie compulsively makes a little clucking sound with her tongue. [[spoiler: [[HellIsThatNoise Even after her death.]]]]

* PapaWolf: When it becomes clear to Steve that his wife is losing her mind, his preoccupation turns to keeping Peter safe from her wrath.

* AccompliceByInaction: A thoroughly unintended variation. [[spoiler:Leaving Charlie's headless body in his car]] is one of the main {{Wham Shot}}s that utterly destroy Annie, but he only does this due to his extreme trauma, and even then, it remains ambiguous how much [[spoiler:Paimon]] had to do with it.
* AloofBigBrother: A mild and normal version to Charlie. Doesn't want to take her to a party with him, abandons her, barely talks to her. However, she's also pretty aloof and cold to him and he does care about her.
* AmbiguousSituation: Is he still alive at the end after [[spoiler: suicide attempt when he's possessed or does Paimon just control his dead body? Some of his behaviors at the end indicate part of his personality is still active and Paimon only gained control because Peter was just too broken-down to fight him any longer.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: By the final moments of the film, Peter has witnessed his sister's accidental decapitation, his father's immolated corpse, and his possessed mother attempting to kill him before sawing her own head off. At this point, all it takes is one final JumpScare from some random naked cultists to make Peter leap out the attic window to his death. AND IT DOESN'T TAKE.]]

* TheUnfavourite: Although Annie doesn't exactly [[ParentalFavouritism ''favor'']] Charlie, she and Peter have an extremely difficult relationship and are much more capable of antagonizing each other.

* DyingAsYourself: Attempted by her, but it's brutally subverted. [[spoiler:She genuinely believes that she'll be immolated and free her family when she throws Charlie's sketchbook into the fire.]] She says a DyingDeclarationOfLove towards Steve and Peter. Subverted when [[spoiler:Steve]] dies, and she falls even further into madness and despair, until she too is finally possessed, [[spoiler:tries to kill Peter and commits suicide.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:When she realizes that she accidentally formed a pact with Paimon who intends on possessing her only surviving son, Annie's reaction is ''beyond'' horrified.]]

* MundaneSolution: How does Steve managed [[spoiler: the death of his daughter]] and the ensuing grief and horror? Silently nursing resentment, taking illicit drugs, or delving into the occult like his son and wife? No: get medicated. One might almost think there's some moral to be implied by how functional Steve remains compared to the insanity unleashed by the other's coping mechanisms.

->'''Portrayed By:''' Alex Wolff

* [[FinalGirl Final Boy]]: [[spoiler:Only physically; his body survives, his mind... not so much.]]

* DyingAsYourself: Attempted by her, but it's brutally subverted. [[spoiler:She genuinely believes that she'll be immolated and free her family when she throws Charlie's sketchbook into the fire.]] She says FamousLastWords as a DyingDeclarationOfLove towards Steve and Peter. Subverted when [[spoiler:Steve]] dies, and she falls even further into madness and despair, until she too is finally possessed, [[spoiler:tries to kill Peter and commits suicide.]]