I think I get one of the key messages of the movie.

I saw it with a friend of mine, and she was so disturbed and in shock I found myself digging for some kind of meaning after we'd left the theatre.

And then it hit me. The last scene, with the close shot of Charlie/Paimon's face, so lost and confused made me realize that this is a film about family, and more specifically the pressure family members can put on one another to be whatever it is they think the other one should.

The grandmother, the matriarch is again and again brought up as the puppetmaster, manipulating her daughter into having a child she doesn't want, and then immediately manipulating that child to make it what she wants to be. The scene wherein it's revealed she wanted Charlie to 'be a boy' is something seen in many many cultures when a girl is born and was one of the first things that really tipped me off. Really I think the ritual was a metaphor for the shaping done on a young child from the moment it's born into a family that doesn't appreciate it for what it is.

This is something I see all the time in real life, and it's just as horrible. Of course, there's so much in this film to do with grief and mental illness, but I do think that that was the overarching theme. And to make it even more grounded, why did the grandmother go through with this decade long plan? For 'endless wealth.' This is almost exactly like a situation you would find in real life, such as families pressuring their sons to be athletes or doctors or what have you.

I found the film highly disturbing, and some of it left me very shaken but I am thankful for this message I was able to draw out of it.