Hereditary
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50 free Hereditary trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Hereditary arrived at Sundance in January 2018 as a first feature from a director known only for provocative shorts, and left as the most talked-about horror film of the year. Ari Aster pitched it as a family tragedy, built its interiors on a soundstage so the camera could pull back like a child peering into a dollhouse, and handed Toni Collette the role of her career. These 50 questions cover the film from the Graham house to the treehouse: Annie's miniatures, Steve the psychiatrist, Peter and Charlie, Ellen's funeral, the nut allergy, Joan and her grandson Louie, the séance, Queen Leigh and the demon king Paimon, the Lesser Key of Solomon, Carrie as an influence, the Macbeth superstition on set, Colin Stetson's score, Judy Collins over the credits, the Peter Rabbit trailer mishap in Australia, the $10 million budget, the A24 records and the D+ CinemaScore. Easy questions stick to the cast and the premise; the hard tier asks about shooting locations, producers and festival dates. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation that adds one more fact. Play it solo or print it for a horror movie night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Time Out's review hailed Hereditary as 'a new generation's' version of which horror classic?
The Exorcist
The Exorcist. The line went on the trailer, and Variety later argued it did the film no favours: the comparison became a meme that set up expectations no movie could meet.
Q 02Who plays Annie Graham in Hereditary?
Toni Collette
Toni Collette. She had just told her agent to send her nothing heavy, only comedies, when the script arrived, and the more she read the more she felt she had to do it.
Q 03What is Annie Graham's profession in Hereditary?
Miniature artist
Miniature artist. The film's first shot glides into one of her model houses, and the tiny bedroom inside turns into her son's real one.
Q 04In Hereditary, what kills Charlie when she leans out of the speeding car's window?
A telephone pole
A telephone pole. Her brother, in shock, drives home without a word and goes to bed, leaving their mother to find the body in the car the next morning.
Q 05Who plays Annie's husband Steve in Hereditary?
Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne. His Steve is the family sceptic, a psychiatrist who keeps from Annie the news that her mother's grave has been desecrated.
Q 06Who plays the Grahams' teenage son Peter in Hereditary?
Alex Wolff
Alex Wolff. He had to play a teenager unravelling from trauma, stayed in that shaken headspace for most of the shoot, and called it the hardest thing he had ever done.
Q 07Who plays the Grahams' daughter Charlie in Hereditary?
Milly Shapiro
Milly Shapiro. Aster, who feared he would never find the right girl for so odd a part, was relieved the moment the young Broadway actress walked into her audition.
Q 08Who plays Joan, the support-group member who befriends Annie in Hereditary?
Ann Dowd
Ann Dowd. Her Joan seems a kindly fellow mourner, until a photo album shows her as an acolyte of the coven that Annie's mother led.
Q 09What sound does Charlie habitually make in Hereditary?
A tongue click
A tongue click. It outlasts her: after her death, her brother hears the same ghostly sound in his bedroom at night.
Q 10In which US state was Hereditary filmed?
Utah
Utah. The Grahams' house is a real one there, but only from outside: every room inside was built from scratch on a stage.
Q 11In Hereditary, what is the name of Annie's recently deceased mother?
Ellen
Ellen. She was estranged from Annie for years, yet took a close hand in raising Charlie, the granddaughter who mourns her hardest.
Q 12In Hereditary, what does Charlie have a severe allergy to?
Nuts
Nuts. At a party her brother leaves her on her own, and the slice of cake he tells her to go and get sends her into anaphylactic shock.
Q 13In Hereditary, what does Charlie cut from a dead bird at school and slip into her pocket?
Its head
Its head. She snips it off with scissors after the bird flies into a classroom window, one more piece for the toys she builds out of debris and dead things.
Q 21Which grimoire describes Hereditary's demon as a king of Hell commanding 200 legions?
The Lesser Key of Solomon
The Lesser Key of Solomon. It also says the demon arrives heralded by trumpets, a detail the film's score honours in the final scene.
Q 22Which studio released Hereditary in US cinemas?
A24
A24. Forecasts pointed to an opening weekend in single-digit millions, but Hereditary took more than $13 million, the best debut the indie studio had then had.
Q 23How did Ari Aster originally pitch Hereditary to avoid scaring off funders?
As a family tragedy
As a family tragedy. His line to backers was 'a family tragedy that curdles into a nightmare', though he says the finished film is unabashedly a horror movie.
Q 14In Hereditary, what animal in the road makes Peter swerve while driving Charlie to hospital?
A deer
A deer. It is already lying dead in the road, and Peter, who had left his sister alone at the party to go and smoke, is left guilt-stricken and withdrawn.
Q 15In Hereditary, what ritual does Joan teach the grieving Annie to perform at home?
A séance
A séance. When Annie tries it at home with her family, she begins speaking in her dead daughter's voice, and only stops when Steve throws water over her.
Q 16What does Joan place on Peter in the final scene of Hereditary?
A crown
A crown. Joan lifts it from a mannequin and sets it on Peter while the rest of the coven kneels and hails him as its king.
Q 17What is the name of the demon king at the heart of Hereditary?
Paimon
Paimon. In the film's lore he brings wealth and knowledge to those who summon him but demands a male host, the detail on which the whole plot turns.
Q 18Under what name did Annie's mother lead her coven in Hereditary?
Queen Leigh
Queen Leigh. Annie learns it from a photo album in her mother's boxes, where the friendly Joan from her support group appears among the coven's followers.
Q 19In Hereditary, how does Steve react when Annie begs him to burn Charlie's sketchbook?
He refuses
He refuses. Sure that his wife has lost her mind, he won't do it, so Annie throws the book on the fire herself, and it is Steve who goes up in flames.
Q 20Where does Hereditary's final scene take place?
Charlie's treehouse
Charlie's treehouse. Its interior was built twice on a stage: a smaller version for most scenes, and a larger one made just for the ending.
Q 24Hereditary's lead actress said the script read like which Ang Lee drama?
The Ice Storm
The Ice Storm. Wary of horror, she was won over because the script grasped how people live with loss so well that it read to her like that bleak suburban drama.
Q 25In Hereditary, what does the possessed Peter slam his face against in class?
His desk
His desk. Moments earlier Joan had stood across the street from the school, shouting at him in an attempt to drive his spirit out of his body.
Q 26In Hereditary, what did the sleepwalking Annie once douse herself and her children in?
Paint thinner
Paint thinner. She confides to Joan that she woke in her son's bedroom to find all three of them soaked in it, with a lit match in her hand.
Q 27Why were Hereditary's house interiors built on a soundstage rather than shot in a real house?
So walls could be removed
So walls could be removed. With a wall gone, the camera could pull back far further than any real room allows and shoot from high up, dwarfing the actors.
Q 28Which theatre taboo did Ari Aster break filming Hereditary before a lamp burst?
Naming Macbeth
Naming Macbeth. One of his actors had warned him never to say the Scottish play's name; Aster says he smugly announced it anyway, and the lamp blew during the very next scene.
Q 29The actors who play Steve and Peter in Hereditary had already worked together on which HBO series?
In Treatment
In Treatment. The younger actor had played the youngest son of the older one's therapist there, so Hereditary cast the pair as father and son for a second time.
Q 30Which saxophonist, known for playing with Arcade Fire and Bon Iver, composed the score for Hereditary?
Colin Stetson
Colin Stetson. He says Aster drew on his solo records while writing, then asked him to score the film, and that he began composing from the script before filming started.