Was Thinking About This Post That I Made With Gifs Showing The Crown Parallels Between Peter Graham From

was thinking about this post that i made with gifs showing the crown parallels between peter graham from hereditary and neil perry from dead poets society and i want to expand on my thoughts a bit more even if the explanation comes out a bit confusing

starting off with peter:

throughout the movie peter is being slowly broken down by everything happening around him: charlie's death, his mom spiralling, the guilt that came with charlie's death, the supernatural things annie brings into the house, the visions and supernatural experiences After the seance, until he finally breaks the night after he breaks his nose. his last straw was in the attic, when he sees annie severing her own head, and after jumping out of the window all that remained of peter graham was gone, which finally let paimon enter his body.

all of this was completely intentional from the very beginning, its what the cult wanted. and the crown finishes it off.

after paimon gets peter's body as his host joan places the crown (a crown that was placed on charlie's severed head, the previous host), and peter graham finally becomes king paimon. he's being crowned by someone else (joan), and it's not something he wanted but something that marked his "death" (because even though peter's body is still there the peter as we knew him died after jumping out of that window). peter had no choice from the very beginning

the crown is to me a victory symbol of everything the cult wanted: a new host for their leader, the specific host they wanted (peter), the riches that would allegedly come with it, etc. its the birth of a demon and the death of a boy. the song that plays during this scene is called Reborn for a reason after all. the crown is made out of flesh, a new body.

and now for neil:

neil probably had suicidal ideation from the very beginning of the movie. we see shadows of it after his conversation with his father, and when keating talks about death his reaction is always shown, but unlike peter we see him slowly getting more hopeful, trying in every way to be his true self and pursue what he loves until its too late.

neils crown is a symbol of his true self: the neil that acts, the neil that pursues the stage and the neil who flourishes at it. it's pucks crown, but puck is neils true self.

his crown is made out of twigs and berries, and it shows to me that neils true home is not between the artificial and clean walls of a hospital, but a more natural place, such as the woods they venture in both a midsummer nights dream and the welton campus.

and when it's neils time to die, unlike peter, its his own choice.

one of the first things we see when neil is preparing to go down to his father's office is him touching the crown, and then as he stands by the window he picks it up and places it on his head.

neils crown is also the last nail in the coffin, it's his choice to die as his true self instead of living the boy his father wants him to be. puck was the most free neil ever felt, and so he crowns himself as robin goodfellow, as the real neil perry. and so he dies an empty shell of who he was, but by his own choice.

peter and neil share a lot of similarities, they are boys doomed by forces out of their control (be it a school system that drains the life out of its students or a demon-worshipping cult), and their final moments make me go batshit crazy, stolen flesh and winter berries and both boys crowned and reborn but no longer there at all.