King Paimon

King Paimon is the secondary antagonist of 2018 psychological/supernatural horror movie Hereditary. He is a powerful deity who is one of the great kings of hell. His worshippers want him to come back to life so he can make them rich and wise.

History
He is first seen in one of the cult books which belongs to Ellen Leigh, deceased mother of Annie Graham. The book indicates that Paimon needs a male human body in order to come back to life and he makes his worshippers rich and tells them what they want to learn.

When Annie's daughter, Charlie, was born, Ellen wanted to take care of her. She loved her so much. She called Charlie her favorite. As Charlie noted, her grandmother had hoped she would be born a boy. But Annie didn't want Charlie to be with her grandmother. Annie knew that his brother commited suicide because of their mother. Annie's brother claimed that Ellen was trying to call spirits to possess him and he ended up commited suicide when he was 16. When Ellen died, Charlie became even more weird. She wanted her grandmother back, but her mother told her that she would take care of her. Charlie is allergic to nuts so she cannot eat snacks with nuts. When Peter, only son of Graham family, wanted to go to a party alone, her mother forced him to go to the party with his sister, Charlie. Peter is a weed smoker. While smoking weed, he left Charlie alone in the party and Charlie ate chocolate cake with peanuts. She couldn't breathe and his brother had to take her to the hospital. He had a car accident on the road. Charlie's killed in route when she sticks her head out of the car window in a desperate attempt to breath shortly before Peter swerves to avoid a dead animal in the road and veers so close to a pole that it connects with Charlie's head and decapitates her.

After the funeral of Charlie, Annie started to learn about her mother's past. She met a woman named Joan, and Joan suggested her to call Charlie's soul, told her that she could invite her soul by reading an old spell. That spell was also the key to invite King Paimon. Annie didn't know that and she only wanted to call her daughter. She read the spell and called Charlie's soul and showed this to her family through Charlie's drawing book. While investigating her mother's old books, she learned that she also called a powerful entity, King Paimon, one of the eight kings of Hell. She found information about King Paimon. She learned that King Paimon needed a male human body to resurrect. She also found her mother's cult photos, wearing a white dress and a veil as she is being showered with gold coins. This was a wedding and she learned that her mother was the leader of King Paimon cult, married King Paimon. Joan was also a cult member and best friend of Ellen. They wanted to become rich and wise by worshipping him. Charlie's death was a good opportunity for the cult members to have Peter instead of Charlie. Because, when she was alive, Ellen let King Paimon have Charlie, but Paimon needed a male host to be fully resurrected.

Later, Annie went up to the attic and found her mother's headless corpse, under the sigil of King Paimon. Meanwhile, at the school, Peter told his father that an evil spirit was after him. Peter saw Joan saying "I dispel you, Peter." Later, in the class, a possessed Peter hit his head to the desk and screamed. His father brought him home and Annie immidiately told her husband that she saw the headless corpse of her mother in the attic. He went up to the attic and saw the body as well. Annie tried to force her husband to put Charlie's drawing book into fire or else that evil spirit, King Paimon, would possess Peter, but her husband didn't believe him. He believed she went crazy. Annie tried to burn the drawing book earlier but that also effected her. She extinguished the drawing book to free herself from fire before her arm also burned with the drawing book. Later, she tried to burn the drawing book with her husband but that effected her husband instead of her. A shocked Annie watched her husband and drawing book burned together. King Paimon possessed the house, later he possessed Annie, made her attack Peter. Peter found his father's burnt corpse. He went up to the attic, run from Annie who is possessed by King Paimon, and told his mother to stop. This time in the attic, there was Peter's picture under the Paimon sigil instead of Ellen's headless corpse. After he saw his mother ripping her own head off, Peter jumped out of the window and a spirit took over his body. That spirit later revealed to be Paimon. Peter saw his mother's headless corpse floating into Charlie's tree house. He saw that his mother's and grandmother's headless corpses prostrating before the statue of King Paimon which had Charlie's severed, rotten head.

There was a picture of Ellen Graham labelled as "Queen Leigh". Later, the cult members in the tree house called Peter and said "You are Paimon now! Hail, Paimon!", while they were prostrating before him. Peter was revealed as resurrected King Paimon and looked at the screen.

Trivia
While based on demon lore, Paimon is incorrectly referred to as one of the eight leaders of Hell while traditionally, there are 9.