遗传厄运

看到很多媒体都在吹捧Hereditary如何神乎其神。虽然本片可能没有达到这个高度，但不妨碍它是近两年我认为最好看的恐怖片，也不妨碍这部处女作在恐怖片历史上留下浓墨重彩的一笔。

这可能是我看过最悲伤的恐怖片。前半段缓慢的铺陈（虽然有些太慢了），讲述这个家庭如何一步步分崩离析。这家人似乎彼此都很疏远，但血缘的亲近仍使他们深爱自己的亲人。尤其是妹妹死后家里悲伤的氛围，实在是太真实太生动了，丧感层层叠加，要不是知道这是恐怖片，我都怀疑导演要拍一部《山中的曼彻斯特》了。片名Hereditary就已经揭示了这个家庭命中注定的悲剧结局。还有什么比这更悲惨的呢？明明什么伤天害理的事都没有做，唯一的错误就只是出生在了这个家庭，所以必须接受这无法逃脱又无能为力的命运，从出生那一刻甚至还未出生的时刻就注定不得善终。

这个主题其实有很多现实意义值得思考。如果明知道结局无法更改，你还会去努力吗？如果明知道孩子出生后很大概率会有缺陷，你还会把它生下来吗？我其实很怕负担这种责任，害怕把这种无法掌控的不幸带给别人，总觉得如果注定那么悲惨还不如没有开始。唉，又是日常恐婚恐育，还是聊聊电影吧。

影片中讲Paimon是八个地狱魔王之一。Paimon必须在男性的身体里才能完全发挥它的能力，为它的信徒带来财富。由于Charlie是个女孩，Paimon需要Peter的身体来纠正这个错误。我后来粗略地浏览了一下维基百科上关于Paimon的介绍，说很多关于Paimon外貌的描述都是一个拥有女性的脸的男人。这和影片中Paimon从女孩的身体出来后进入到男孩体内十分吻合。

这家的祖母Ellen，被称为Queen Leigh，应该是与Paimon缔结了契约，并且算是这个邪教领袖级别的人物。影片开始不久，Annie在Ellen的遗物中找到的纸条早已向我们说明了这场恶魔的交易：“Our sacrifice will pale next to the rewards” (我们的牺牲和能得到的回报比起来什么也不算)。Ellen用自己的血脉为Paimon提供精神的载体，而Paimon回赠她财富。从影片后段祖母的照片来看，的确是拿到了不少金币。

Hereditary一是指传承的血脉，二应该也是指遗传性精神病。这一家人或多或少都有一些精神问题。

Annie在互助会发言的时候，说到自己家人好像都有精神问题。母亲患有分离性身份障碍（Dissociative Identity Disorder, DID），最后又得了严重的老年痴呆。父亲患有抑郁症，活活把自己饿死。哥哥16岁就患有精神分裂（Schizophrenia）。而Annie自己在梦游的时候，似乎也会显示出另一种人格。她的儿子和女儿看起来也是与周围格格不入的怪咖。

Annie对母亲的感觉是复杂的，这一点其实和Peter对Annie的感觉很像。Peter曾亲眼目睹母亲在梦游的时候差点杀死自己，必然是害怕的，但同时他仍然爱着母亲。而Annie对神神叨叨的母亲也是害怕的，母亲的死对她来说，比悲伤更多的可能是一种解脱。所以她在葬礼结束回家后问Steve：“我在葬礼上是不是应该表现得更伤心一些？”但是亲生母亲去世怎么可能不难受，所以她去互助会寻求安慰。只可惜这并非真正的解脱，母亲留下的诅咒依然遗传在这个家庭中。

当知道答案后，再回顾剧情，发现真的有很多伏笔。Charlie说祖母希望她是个男孩就好了。Charlie割下了鸟的头，之后Charlie、Annie、Ellen的尸体都是没有头的。Annie在互助会提到过哥哥说母亲想要把别人放进他的身体。由此也可以看出，Ellen早就开始为Paimon寻找宿主了。从葬礼开始，Paimon的标志就开始有特写。Charlie撞死的杆子上也有Paimon的标志。Annie去Joan家的时候就说门口的垫子和她妈妈做的很像，预示着Joan其实和她妈妈有关。另外，Peter上课时候讨论的故事似乎也预示着这家人的悲剧。有节课在讨论Iphigenia。 Iphigenia被她父亲献祭以确保他的船队可以到达特洛伊。老师问了一个问题，大概是说因为自己犯了巨大的错误而导致不幸，和因为完全无法掌控自己的命运的注定的不幸，哪个更悲剧一些。而他们一家正是这种无法掌控的不幸。

另一方面，我总觉得Annie或多或少知道些关于Ellen给Paimon献祭这件事。由于她知道家里的不幸和母亲有关，所以她和母亲的关系不好。她曾经想方设法地在怀Peter的时候流产，但没有成功。而生下Peter之后，她也不愿她母亲和Peter有接触。所以Ellen去世的时候，Peter几乎没什么感觉。但是Charlie和祖母很亲近。我记得Annie有说“我把Charlie给了她”。不知道是因为她觉得女孩子没有问题，还是因为想用一个Charlie去换取全家的安宁。我可能更偏向于后者，因为这正好也是一种牺牲一桩交易，就像母亲和Paimon的交易的延续。Annie在母亲葬礼后就已经开始搜索研究和灵魂相关的信息了。而在互助会上，Annie有说她有时候觉得他们家的不幸应该怪自己，旁边的人问怪她什么，她怔怔说她不知道。再进一步更阴谋论的猜想是Annie潜意识里其实也是一名教徒，她梦游时的另一重人格可能也是帮凶。所以梦游时她才会想烧死自己的孩子。所以最后的仪式上，Annie和母亲一起跪在了王座前。

以上个人的理解和解读，欢迎讨论和指正。这两年恐怖片市场突然井喷，看多了表面被吹爆实则无聊炒冷饭的烂片，总算看到一部逻辑清晰情节细腻的好片了。

恩，还有就是，看完之后有一种想在别人耳边弹舌头的冲动……

作为今年最期待的一部恐怖片，这部电影我觉得有点名气大于内容，有那么一点点失望。本片与其他形形色色的驱魔/附体/召灵类电影相比没能有太多独特的地方，或许这个题材也是被挖掘的太透了。然而如果非要挑刺的话，这部电影又没有太多可以诟病的地方，悬疑设计和恐怖的情节都把握的不错，尤其是女主的歇斯底里更是亮点十足，试问谁都不想有这个一个阴郁的时常还梦游的母亲和一个长得实在磕碜的妹妹吧？然而总的看来，本片还是算不上特别优秀。

最后聊一聊恶魔学的问题，影片里的邪神派蒙出自世传所罗门王所写的《所罗门之钥匙》（或译《雷蒙盖特》）里。

《恶魔事典》里关于派蒙的描述

派蒙在书里是排行第九的大恶魔，好像也并不是归于电影里所说的“地狱八王”，而他排在前面的那些大佬诸如巴尔（游戏《暗黑破坏神》），华利弗（游戏《最终幻想X》），巴巴托斯（动漫《铁血的奥尔芬斯》）之类就更加脍炙人口了，流行文化均对上述几类恶魔都有所涉及，也让这些神秘的恶魔被世人所知。所罗门王把自己的灵魂献给魔神为代价换取了召唤72个恶魔（又称72柱神）的能力，这些恶魔能力有大有小，也有着一定的等级制度，大到帝王、大公、伯爵小到普通的使魔，构成了一个恶魔王国。然而所罗门王在去世后，入侵的巴比伦人攻进皇宫，以为关着72魔神的瓶子里装着的是财宝，于是打开封印把这些大大小小的恶魔一并放了了出来，至此，恶魔在人间里形形色色的传说开始了，也有了后世这么多关于驱魔的电影。纵观恐怖电影史，大部分驱魔/附体类电影里的恶魔都出自这72柱神。有兴趣的朋友可以搜索一下此类电影里恶魔们最后被神父用圣水和圣经逼出来的自报家门，差不多都在这七十二个恶魔之列。

这个导演比较不走寻常路，通常这种悬疑性质很大的电影，导演都会回避特别清楚地回答观众疑问，他反而在各种访问、活动一一回答了大部分问题。

以下两个链接说得很清楚了：

//variety.com/2018/film/awards/hereditary-ari-aster-answers-burning-questions-1202841448/

And the fact the family is completely unaware adds to the terror. One way that I pitched the film when I was first taking it out was “it’s a story about a long-lived possession ritual told from the perspective of the sacrificial lamb.” Ultimately we are with the family in their ignorance of what’s really happening. But I also wanted to imbue the film with this sinister, more knowing perspective. Even though we are with the family in their ignorance, the movie itself knows exactly where the story is going. And everything is inevitable. Throughout the film, things are just sort of clicking into place and all those things are driving this family towards one end.

In an early scene, the subject of free will is discussed. Are you saying this family has no free will? Yeah, absolutely. I see the film as being very Greek in that sense. This is absolutely inevitable, the family has absolutely no agency.

There is nothing Annie can do to stop this from happening? No, I don’t think so. That’s where the dollhouses came in. Annie creates these miniature figures and dollhouses and they served as a perfect metaphor for the situation; they’re dolls in a dollhouse being manipulated by outside forces. Any control they try to seize is hopeless.

Is that why she thinks she can stop it by burning the Charlie’s sketchbook – the first time she tries, she catches fire — but the second time, her husband Steve catches fire? Exactly. Even that scene is meant to play as Annie’s big redemptive moment, she’s going to sacrifice herself for her son. It’s a beautiful gesture but part of the cruel logic of the film is it’s an empty gesture. Ultimately, it’s not her choice to make. She thinks there’s a design here and she can end things if she sacrifices herself. But there’s no design and there are no rules. There is a malicious logic at play.

Could it have been prevented if she hadn’t been tricked into casting the spell given to her by Joan? The thing is, that scene is ultimately a red herring, and it’s a piece of misdirection. It plays as a séance scene but really it’s a much darker conjuring and they need Annie to take part in it in order to bring it in the house and in order to further this ritual along. When she invites it in, she escalates things. But it would’ve happened anyway, we’re just seeing how it happened. We’re seeing one of the ways it could play out.

There’s a lot of talk about what a bad mother Annie’s mother was. Did she just have kids for the purpose of this ritual? That’s pretty much what is suggested. If you listen to Annie’s speech at the group therapy, there are a lot of keys in her monologue as to what came before this and how far back this goes.

Early on, Charlie cuts the head off a pigeon and makes a strange figurine out of it. Can you elaborate on that? I don’t want to be too obvious but we find later that Charlie has been building these figurines to populate a diorama she’s been building that serves as a shrine to Paimon. It also functions as a metaphor for what Paimon is doing to this family. If you look at the diorama you’ll see they’re headless figurines bowing to a pigeon-headed creature with a crown on its head, which is not far away from what we’re left with in the last scene of the film.

Annie talks about how her mother got “her hooks” into Charlie at an early age. Are we meant to think Charlie is in on it? Charlie is the first successful host for Paimon. It’s transferred from Charlie to Peter at the end.

Because Paimon wants a male body? Exactly.

Is there ever a Charlie or is she Paimon from the moment she’s born? From the moment she’s born. I mean, there’s a girl that was displaced, but she was displaced from the very beginning.

In an odd way, that makes me feel better. (Laughs) That’s nice. See, it’s a happy ending. But obviously, there’s a boy who’s horribly displaced by the end.

http://www.vulture.com/2018/06/explaining-the-end-of-hereditary.html

Is Paimon a real thing? He is! Well, real in the sense that if you believe in hell and the Devil, Paimon is an actual entity that people do worship. Across various sources, he is designated as “a great King,” “one of the chief demons,” and “one of the most significant Angelick Rulers.” He pledges intense fealty to Lucifer, and is often rendered riding atop a camel (as we see in the movie).

There are conflicting points of view on whether or not Paimon and the demon Azazel are the same. According to the Black Witch Coven, “He is one of the demonic princes overseeing the four cardinal directions, West being his domain,” which is why Joan (Ann Dowd) and her minions “looked to the Northwest” to summon him in the movie. According to the Joy of Satan Ministries, “Paimon gives the power to influence and control others,” and that seems to scan with how he operates in Hereditary. However, the Ministries also describe the hell king as “full of energy. Loud noises and bright lights tend to make him more active. He is very colorful and very friendly.” Maybe the “party naked” side of him just got left on the cutting-room floor, because that guy seems like a downer.

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What are the “rewards” Annie’s mom wrote to her about in that note? In the Invocations book that Annie pulls out of her mom’s box of things, a photo opposite the image of Paimon shows a person sitting atop a mound of treasure that says “Riches to the conjurer” in a caption beneath. When Joan speaks to Peter/Charlie at the end and crowns him, she asks Paimon to give her and the other followers “knowledge of all secret things, honor, wealth, and good familiars.” She also asks that he bind all men to them, as the worshippers have bound themselves to Paimon.

Those sound like “riches,” and what with a king of hell being resurrected, being recognized as one of his privileged followers will probably be a lot safer than, well, not. In a description of his abilities, Satan Ministries says Paimon “teaches the arts and sciences” in addition to providing “good familiars and gives one position and honor. He can reveal anything about the Earth and one’s mind.” At least some rulers recognize the necessity of science education!

So is Peter Charlie? Or is Peter Paimon? It’s likely that Charlie never knew she was imbued with the spirit of a king of hell, but as Annie says in her grief-counseling group, her mother got “her hooks” in the young girl from the time she was a baby. (Annie’s mom, Ellen, even insisted on feeding baby Charlie — and one of the miniatures depicts grandma offering the infant her exposed breast — which is probably the most unremarked upon insane thing that happens in Hereditary!) As we learn in the opening eulogy, Annie’s mom had “private rituals” and “private friends,” a lot of which probably revolved around putting Paimon into Charlie.

Clearly, though, the long game was to get Paimon into Peter, since Paimon desires a male host, and Charlie sure didn’t seem like she knew she was a preferred underling of the Morning Star! So Paimon was bound to Charlie, and when that little light flash dissolves into Peter’s limp body after he pitches himself out of the attic window at the end, that’s the spirit entering him. With the transfer complete, Joan seems like she’s ready to let Charlie (in Peter’s body) know about everything that’s been going on, and who she really is.

Remember, too, that Annie’s brother hung himself at the age of 16, leaving a note behind saying that his mother had been trying put people inside of him. Ellen failed to secure her son as a host, and she missed her first shot with Peter since Annie had excommunicated her, so she used Charlie as a temporary vessel until the ritual was able to be completed later on. As Aster told Vulture, “The film is about a long-lived possession ritual that is seen from the perspective of the sacrificial lambs.”

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With that in mind, you can think of the movie’s sinister events as being carried out by an invisible hand, of sorts. That sigil painted above grandma’s headless body in the attic? It’s the actual symbol of Paimon, and it was also carved in the utility pole that tore Charlie’s head off. The leafy bit that Annie brushed off her lip when she was drinking tea at Joan’s apartment? Probably a witches brew of some kind (or another red herring, because by now you’re paranoid!). Peter feeling his throat close up and taking the posture of Charlie’s decapitated body before ramming his head into a desk? His body was being primed for a spiritual takeover. Those scrapbook photos of Ellen wearing a white dress and a veil as she’s being showered with gold coins? That sure looks like a wedding ritual, once you see her framed portrait in the satanic tree house, which has a placard with “Queen Leigh” fixed to the top. Does that mean grandma was spiritually married to her granddaughter and therefore breastfed her husband-grandchild when she was an infant? It seems like it!

Did Annie do any of those weird things — decapitating her dead mom’s body, spying on Peter outside his window — or was it the Paimon cult? Aster told Vulture that, “The audience is supposed to suspect that it might be Annie (Toni Collette), but it is the cult of which Ann Dowd is a very significant part. But you are supposed to feel through the film that there are people on the periphery that are watching this family and are hovering just outside.” Therefore, Annie’s sleepwalking was not resulting in her exhuming bodies and cutting their heads off. It was a red herring! Aster laid a sort of bread crumb trail throughout the whole movie, tipping the audience off that the Grahams were always being watched by associates of Ellen and Joan: the man who smiled at Charlie at Ellen’s funeral, all those “new faces” who mourned her death, the woman waving at Charlie across the street from her school, the person breathing in the dark outside of Peter’s window — all of whom we probably saw naked in the tree house during the finale.

What was with that book setting people on fire? It seems like a safe bet that the book was bound to protect itself. The cult did demonstrate they had a pretty long reach when it came to influencing events, and they even stashed a whole headless body in the Graham’s attic when no one was looking. When Annie tried to destroy the book, it protected itself, but Annie was also essential to completing the possession ritual, so she couldn’t just burst into flames and die. We’ll call that a warning shot by the book.

But Steve (Gabriel Byrne)? He had to get out of the way, and the moment he died, Annie stopped being Annie and started being an agent of Paimon, much like when she channeled Charlie into her own body during the previous seance. When that ring of light flashes over her, that’s Paimon beaming into a new host, as Collette explained to Vulture, “Ari was standing to the side, and he let me watch this person be on fire for a while [laughs] and then he said, ‘Okay. Now, Paimon, the light, is going to enter you.’ We never talked about what that would ever look like or be like. I just did one take and that was it.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is called acting.

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What about Annie’s sleepwalking, then? Go with us on this one. What if the sleepwalking was Annie’s subconscious way of fighting her mother and the ritual? She tried to set Peter and Charlie on fire once before, but snapped out of it, right? And then in the dream we see where she admits she wanted to abort Peter but her mom wouldn’t allow it — and so she tried to force a miscarriage — she screams at him, “I wasn’t trying to kill you! I was trying to protect you!” Somewhere in Annie’s subconscious, she must have known her children were in danger, and just as her brother had to kill himself to escape Ellen’s clutches when he was a teenager, Annie must have known deep down that as long as the kids were alive they were existentially threatened.

As Collette told Vulture, in that moment Annie is surfacing what’s in her subconscious, which “allows the audience to know that this is a kind of murky, not entirely understood, gray area about the safety of her children and the intention behind the creation of them — and how her mother was involved, right? So it’s still not entirely clear, but there is an indication of some concern there.” Annie realizes after it’s too late, though, that she part of that threat, and must die if she wants to protect her kids. But by that point the toothpaste is out of the tube, and it just isn’t going back in.

Are the decapitations part of Paimon-related lore? Not really. Aster added that element himself, and he’s not into explaining why. As he told Vulture, “I think it would be disingenuous for me to give any sort of intellectual answer. I feel like there are a lot of really good reasons and I like all of them, but uttering them kind of robs them of something. But I do like all the things that they might provoke in somebody.” As for Collette, she has formed her own theory about all the rolling heads. “We’re so attached to our bodies, we’re so attached to the brain and the mind. They’re like the control center, and that once you lose that metaphorically, you become nothing, and therefore you are able to give yourself over to this greater force?” Speculate away!

So why did he use Paimon? No special reason, really. Aster said to Vulture that he just didn’t want to deploy Lucifer again, and hey, that’s fair. If you need a more substantial explanation than that — just let it go. Sometimes creepy is enough.

大家好啊 我是Paimon 初次来到人间，很新奇 由于人生地不熟，我想好歹先找一个人问问情况（为了行走方便顺便占用一下身体） 没想到凭借我地狱魔王的尊贵身份以及了不起的各项能力 竟然收获了一票信徒 看来人类真是非常的单纯和可爱 信徒中首当其冲的就是一位叫做Ellen的女性

很可惜，由于我的设定，我只有在男性的身体里才能达到我恐怖如斯的巅峰实力 幸运的是，当Ellen得知我拥有如此多的能力之后 她与我签订了一份协议 挺长的，就不放出来了啊 总之呢，我给她点好处，她需要提供一副健壮的男性身体 当然中间的过程我并不干涉，听最后跪在我面前的信徒们说，状况还是挺惨烈的 感动到了

当然，入乡随俗，到了人间 据说一个秘密的行动组之间一定要有一个暗号 我思考了许久，觉得用弹舌非常不错——毕竟不引人注目用的人又少，况且不失风雅也不尴尬

有了协议之后 Ellen特别的积极，她本想将她的外孙Peter献祭于我 却因为她的神神叨叨一直被她的女儿Annie干涉，不让她接触到可爱的Peter 你是不是傻啊！我当时很生气地说，不能强抢，你就智取啊，从精神上先击溃对手

终于，机会来了，在Annie又生下了一个女儿Charlie之后，她说先让我躲藏在这幅娇小的女性身体之中伺机而发 我决定给她一个机会，于是我上了Charlie的身 也正在这时Ellen竟然老死了，人类可真是脆弱啊

为了得到Peter的身心（不要误会我不是那个意思），我要先将这个家庭分崩离析 Ellen的去世对这个家庭还是挺有打击的，特别是唤起了Annie内心的感情，这是件好事 如果我雪上加霜，隔不久就把Annie的女儿Charlie也解决了 要知道，处于崩溃边缘的人最好击破了 拿出笔记本好好记记，来自恶魔的战术安排不是每天都有的

于是在一个月黑风高的夜晚，我行动了——并且圆满成功 不仅Annie几近崩溃，连Peter也吓傻了，一箭双雕秒啊

接下来的这一步异常关键 据我了解崩溃的人无法面对家人，无人倾诉 这时候我安排的另外一个信徒琼上场了

我让她告诉了Annie她可以通灵，召唤出已逝之人的灵魂 在让Annie亲眼见证之后，再一并告诉Annie通灵的方法，并且要Annie在通灵的时候拉上全家 Annie一定会忍不住使用这个通灵法 这不，她很听话地还拉上了全家，表面上看起来通灵成功了，实际上这一整家已经通过这个仪式和我又签订了契约

我可真是个小机灵魔啊！！ 而签订时的媒介笔记本，也成为了与他们生死联结的道具

哎弄了半天终于要到关键的地方了 在我们恶魔界，什么信任，不存在的 在这个家变得支离破碎后，自然本就互相排斥的成员之间最后的信任也被我所吞噬 Annie竟然还想企图烧掉笔记本来终结这一切 年轻人你这个想法真危险，有本事你烧啊

烧掉倒好，趁你崩溃的时间先上一下你的身 去把你儿子Peter吓得跳窗

一切水到渠成 不禁放下手中的武器为自己鼓掌

终于，在各位忠实信徒的膜拜之下 我获得了这幅身体 这一路走来真是感慨万千啊 没想到这个厄运会“一惨惨一窝” 最后我想感谢一下各位支持和鼓励我的观众 如果你也有兴趣签点什么的话，可以与我联系 我会以弹舌的方式予以回应。 对了，有好学的小伙伴问 为什么每个人包括那只可怜的鸟都要把他们的头弄掉，是有什么特殊的含义和喜好吗 对啊，我喜欢，怎么着吧

对了因为我的名字paimon 还有一层含义：“叮叮当当”的声音 就是最后我接受新身体时候响起的那一阵铃铛声 你以为作法呢？别傻了那是在召唤我的名字 所以如果你听到了叮叮当当 记得要和我打招呼哦 等等，还记得我们之间的暗号吗？

很多细节和暗喻值得好评。

------------------------以下剧透------------------------

妹妹剪掉鸟头，跟后来剧情的呼应。

哥哥上课的时候老师提问，如果悲剧人物是有选择的，那么就不悲剧了，还是更悲剧呢？暗示哥哥其实从一开始就没有选择，如果妹妹没有非正常死亡，哥哥也会迟早沦为祭品。

母亲说在怀哥哥的时候曾多次尝试流产，但未能成功。母亲在致丧辞的时候提到的兄长和祖父的非正常死亡。兄长自杀前说祖母想把别人放进他的身体。祖父活活把自己饿死。这应该都是祖母及教众的作法。也就是说从母亲的兄长开始，祖母及教众就一直在招这个 paimon 来附体。

这个叫做King Paimon 的灵体也十分有意思，他的能力就是无所不知，只要问他，无所不答。也就是说可以用来寻宝。。。感觉祖母为首的这群教众也是十分实用主义了。。。。

我个人是觉得祖母下的这一盘大棋里，一开始并没有打算加害于母亲，只会牺牲哥哥和妹妹，甚至以为招魂换体成功后，母亲能跟着沾点光。这点也说明为何教众等到妹妹非正常死亡后才开始动手。奈何在双亲的疏于关怀下，妹妹非正常死亡，而导致教众要将母亲和父亲也斩首并摆成谢罪的姿势。＊＊＊Vanity Fair的影评里说妹妹撞掉头的那根电线杆上也有祖母的ＸＩＥ教的标记，我是没看到啦，但如果是这样的话，感觉跟祖母留给母亲的明信片上的话就有点矛盾了，但明信片是写给母亲还是妹妹的？可能我需要二刷呢。。。。。如果是留给妹妹的，那就是一开始早就打算杀掉全家人了。

个人感觉结尾部分有点用力过猛，其实并不需要旁白一样的台词来点醒观众。但哥哥身体里的灵魂应该是妹妹的，因为台词就有“It's OK，Charlie（妹妹名）”。

至于母亲为何把妹妹死亡的场景也做成微型模型，个人觉得，做模型是母亲这样一个从小被祖母在情感上虐待的人，在成长过程中，找到的一种受到伤害后的抒发情绪并开解自己的方法。所以她做的很多模型，都是她被traumatized的场景，比如一开头那个诡异的哺乳场景，以及祖母在医院的场景。

唯三点感觉不太明白：一是明明丢笔记本进壁炉的是母亲，为何被烧死的却是父亲，二就是阁楼上的尸体，从父亲收到的email来看，应该是祖母的，但为何要把尸体放在阁楼？以及为何需要把尸体斩首。

＊＊＊在别的影评里看到一点，即本片也在批判性别歧视，即母亲和妹妹都是非常有创造力和才能的，跟祖母也是有感情的，然而哥哥只是一个无所事事只想飞叶子和打炮的青少年，但祖母和教众却一点要杀死妹妹，将“错误的性别”纠正为“健康的男性”（correct your body with a healthy male body）。不过我觉得如果是这样的话，没有必要特意把妹妹的脸做成畸形的。

1.开篇的第一个镜头即是电影最后举行仪式的小木屋，暗示其重要性，达成首尾呼应的效果。

2.父亲发现女儿查莉躺在小木屋里，跟她说昨夜很冷，她这样会得肺病的，而她只是怯怯地说“我没事”。

——这里有两种可能，一是查莉自己在害怕小木屋之外的某样东西，二是她自己也不知道为什么就到了那里。

我个人比较偏向于第一种解释，因为查莉被派蒙神附身，我们经常从她的视角看到许多奇异的东西，前半段也经常有科学所不能解释的东西出现在房子里。

查莉因为经常能在房子里看见这些东西，但又不知道自己为什么能看见，所以感到害怕就跑到小木屋里面睡觉，远离房子，给她带来些许安全感。

3.艾伦夫人（安妮母亲）遗体上的项链和安妮脖子上的链子是艾伦夫人参加邪教的信物（后面女主角翻母亲相册时照片中的每个人都有佩戴），但安妮明明还不知道这是什么东西，怎么就独自一人戴上了？（父亲、查莉和皮特都没戴），而且她与母亲的关系还十分疏离，几乎不可能像寻常母女一样互送礼物。

这里就有可能就是在暗示安妮的分裂/多重人格了，类似他哥哥（女主角在失去至亲的会上有提到自己哥哥患有精神分裂症），她会有邪教的一面，也会有想保护家人的一面。

而影片所展现的，就是安妮保护家人那一面慢慢崩塌（主要体现在信仰和精神状态），被邪教面逐渐吞噬（后半段安妮精神越发脆弱，因为信仰崩塌而目睹许多灵异事件），最终成为傀儡的过程。

4.艾伦夫人留下给安妮的信件中提到了“牺牲”“奖励”等词汇，而且还伴有几本关于邪教的书籍。

很明显就是在指引邪教面的安妮，帮助自己的教会朋友达成最终目的。

5.查莉剪掉鸟儿的头，与后面自己掉头呼应，而她在房间中制作东西的时候，是不是也很像在制作鸟儿的身体呢？

6.查莉在课间看到艾伦夫人的邪教朋友在向她招手，可能预示着，查莉已经被这帮人监视许久，他们时刻观察着被派蒙神附身的女儿的情况。

7.安妮制作了一个自己房间的模型，模型中她死去的母亲在门口望着正在熟睡的安妮夫妻俩。

折射安妮焦灼的内心，联系遗留信件，其实一直怀疑自己的母亲在作怪。

8.母亲独自睡在小木屋的反常举动与后面拿着毯子出去睡觉的行为相呼应。

暗示查莉过去常常睡在小木屋里，因失去女儿而濒临崩溃的安妮只有睡在那边感受女儿曾存在的气息才能得到暂时的安眠。

9.自妹妹查莉死后，哥哥皮特时刻处于煎熬、精神衰落的时期，被派蒙趁虚而入，经常性地看见查莉看见的奇异光线和奇怪的事物、甚至直接被派蒙神上身。

10.琼尼在皮特的学校外边，念叨着咒语，呼唤“皮特，离开你的身体吧。”

就是在为派蒙神的降临做最后铺垫，因为此时的皮特已经处于精神最衰落时刻，最适合派蒙神降临，占据他的躯壳。

11.查莉房间的图画册和小木屋照片上都很明确的X掉了皮特的眼睛，眼睛代表心灵之窗，昭示皮特灵魂封闭，身体将成为供派蒙神驱使的躯壳。

12.安妮发现母亲的尸体出现在了自己房子的阁楼里，这很明显的就是邪教里面的人搬来的。

为什么呢？

首先，要让鬼魂显现，就先得要尸体在附近。

在房子内外显现的艾伦夫人、查莉鬼魂的尸体都依次出现在了房子阁楼和小木屋中。（在其他地方出现的就只有派蒙神）

其次，举行最终仪式，也需要艾伦夫人尸体在场（最终仪式中就有艾伦夫人尸体出现）。

13.片尾，琼尼的声音缓缓说道：“嘿嘿嘿，没事了，查莉，您现在是派蒙。”

神学上面的派蒙神是双性的，即女脸，男性姿态，恰恰与片中查莉头上皇冠嫁接到皮特头上相对应，而主控身体的是大脑，故琼妮称查莉为派蒙神。

这次仪式的最终目的就是让派蒙神双性完整。

此前艾伦夫人留下的信件中所提到的“奖励”恐怕就是让查莉成为真正的派蒙神，掌握派蒙关于科学、艺术、秘法诸如此类的神力了。

如有观点不成熟/错误之处😿请多多包涵，多多指教