Hoard 2024

Drama

Rank

#7,246

Box Office

$88K

Runtime

2 h 6 m

Language

English

Directed by

Luna Carmoon

Made by

Erebus Pictures

Where to Watch Hoard

See current US streaming, rental, and purchase options for Hoard (2024) via JustWatch.

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Hoard Plot Summary

Read the complete plot summary and ending explained for Hoard (2024). From turning points to emotional moments, uncover what really happened and why it matters.

Hoard Timeline

Follow the complete movie timeline of Hoard (2024) with every major event in chronological order. Great for understanding complex plots and story progression.

Childhood in Cynthia's catalogue of love

Maria grows up in her mother's filthy, rat-infested house where Cynthia treats hoarded items as the 'catalogue of love.' Cynthia fills Maria's days with aphorisms and rhymes, shaping her sense of safety around piles of rubbish. When a Christmas stack collapses, Cynthia is badly injured and Maria is placed in foster care.

Christmas (childhood) Cynthia's house

Ashes delivered and Laraib leaves

Now eighteen, Maria lives with foster mother Michelle in 1994. That same day, Cynthia's ashes are delivered, with a courier noting cremated remains must be received within two weeks, signaling Cynthia's recent death. On the same day, Maria's childhood friend Laraib is forced to move away with her family due to rebellious behavior.

1994 (same day as ashes) Michelle's home

Michael stays; Maria's pregnancy

Michael, an older former resident who is staying with them temporarily, grows close to Maria while he searches for a place with his girlfriend Leah. Their relationship becomes intense and uneasy, blurring boundaries and trust. Maria discovers she is pregnant.

1994 Michelle's home

Trauma resurfaces as an iron burn request

Driven by inherited trauma, Maria asks Michael to burn her stomach with an iron—an echo of pain from her childhood. The moment shows how past injuries shape her present choices and boundaries. The exchange underscores the dangerous intensity of their bond.

1994 Michelle's home

Hoards return and hygiene declines

Maria begins hoarding garbage again and neglecting her personal hygiene. She experiences recurring flashbacks to Cynthia's rhymes, which seem to guide her behavior. The household atmosphere grows increasingly unstable as the hoard expands.

1994 Michelle's home

Night wanderings and intimate moment

One night, Maria wanders outside and returns with chilblains. Michael tenderly cares for her and their intimate encounters resume, intensifying the volatile dynamic between them.

1994 Outside near Michelle's home

Leah learns of the engagement

Leah visits Michael, who is entangled with Maria. Maria learns that he proposed to Leah the day before, revealing the fragility and complexity of their relationship and the strain it places on everyone involved.

1994 Michelle's home

Hit-and-run and the coins over the eyes

That night they encounter a woman seriously injured in a hit-and-run; she dies while Maria waits for Michael to get help. In a detached moment, Maria places coins over the woman's eyes and then climbs into a large rubbish bin.

1994 City street

Confrontations, rejection, and departure

The next day, Maria returns barefoot and locked in a room piled with trash. Leah confronts Michael about his choices, and Michael begs Maria to love him, but she rejects him. Michelle confronts Michael and asks him to leave.

1994 Maria's room in Michelle's home

Leah leaves; crocodile gift

As Michael and Leah leave together, Maria gifts Leah with a crocodile trinket and tells her never to leave her daughter. The gesture marks a final, bittersweet attempt to anchor others to a future they cannot share.

1994 Michelle's home

Grief, release, and Laraib's return

Maria begins to come to terms with her grief and helps Michelle throw away the accumulated hoard. Laraib joyously returns home, bringing a sense of relief and reconnection to Maria's life.

1994 Michelle's home

New Year's Eve and the catalogue returns

On New Year's Eve, after dark, Maria rides a bus and watches a group of happy teenagers board, hinting at a possible pregnancy. She then sneaks into a rubbish tip and sits atop a pile of trash to watch the fireworks. In a voiceover, she tells Cynthia she loves her and says the 'catalogue of love' has returned to her.

New Year's Eve 1994 City streets and rubbish tip

Hoard Characters

Explore all characters from Hoard (2024). Get detailed profiles with their roles, arcs, and key relationships explained.

Maria (adult) — Saura Lightfoot-Leon

An eighteen-year-old living with her foster mother Michelle, Maria remains haunted by her mother’s hoarding and the ‘catalogue of love.’ Her relationship with Michael is intense and destabilizing, revealing a longing for connection amid trauma. She becomes pregnant by Michael, and her increasingly erratic behavior signals the grip of past grief on her present choices.

💔 Trauma 🧠 Resilience

Cynthia — Hayley Squires

Maria’s mother, a loving yet compulsive hoarder whose home is a cluttered, filthy labyrinth. She expresses affection through the items she stores, treating them as a 'catalogue of love.' A Christmas collapse injures her, and her death leaves Maria to cope with a legacy of trauma. Cynthia’s memory continues to shape Maria’s sense of safety and belonging.

💔 Trauma 🧭 Memory

Laraib — Deba Hekmat

Maria’s childhood best friend who is forced to move away due to family circumstances. The distance tests their bond, but the two remain linked by shared memories and past trauma. Laraib’s eventual return offers a note of hope amid Maria’s continuing struggle with grief and identity.

🤝 Friendship 🏃‍♀️ Escape

Michael — Joseph Quinn

A temporary houseguest who becomes a volatile, obsessive presence in Maria’s life. He maintains a relationship with his girlfriend Leah while forming a dangerous bond with Maria. His manipulative behavior and blurred boundaries propel Maria toward increasingly risky decisions.

💔 Toxicity 🔒 Control

Leah — Ceara Coveney

Michael’s girlfriend who becomes entangled in the couple’s dangerous dynamic. She learns of Michael’s engagement to someone else, setting up a confrontation that exposes the fragility of their relationship. Leah’s presence underscores themes of loyalty, pain, and rupture.

💬 Relationship 🔪 Betrayal

Michelle — Samantha Spiro

Maria’s foster mother who provides care and a sense of stability, even as the household is consumed by the hoard and trauma. She negotiates boundaries and supports Maria’s attempts to rebuild her life, including letting go of the past and reclaiming agency.

🏠 Caregiver 🧭 Stability

Hoard Settings

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Time period

1980s–1994

The narrative begins in the late 1980s with Maria as an eight-year-old living with her hoarder mother, Cynthia. A decade later, in 1994, Maria is an eighteen-year-old living with her foster mother Michelle while facing the consequences of her mother's death and the trauma that shaped her.

Hoard Themes

Discover the main themes in Hoard (2024). Analyze the deeper meanings, emotional layers, and social commentary behind the film.

🕯️

Grief

The film centers on how grief for Cynthia reshapes Maria’s sense of self and memory. Flashbacks to her mother's rhymes and 'catalogue of love' haunt Maria as she grows into adulthood. The story uses memory to explore how trauma persists and reorganizes identity. The loss also fuels Maria’s need for closeness, sometimes in self-destructive ways.

🗑️

Hoarding

Hoarding is treated as both a symptom and coping mechanism for dealing with unresolved trauma. The items become a tangible archive of love, fear, and control that cloaks the characters in clutter and secrecy. The house’s labyrinth mirrors Maria’s internal confusion and the difficulty of letting go. The film uses the hoard to critique how society treats emotional labor and attachment.

💔

Destructive Love

Maria's relationship with Michael exposes a toxic dynamic born from past wounds. Their intense bond blends caretaking, dependency, and possession, blurring lines of consent and safety. The pregnancy and acts of self-harm heighten the sense of danger and desperation. The arc culminates in tragedy and a painful break from a harmful attachment.

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Hoard Spoiler-Free Summary

Discover the spoiler-free summary of Hoard (2024). Get a concise overview without any spoilers.

In a house overflowing with accumulated refuse, young Maria grows up navigating a world where affection is measured in saved scraps and hoarded treasures. Her mother Cynthia creates a sanctuary of sorts amid the chaos — a cluttered, deteriorating home where every piece of rubbish holds meaning, and where love expresses itself through the act of keeping. Cynthia teaches her daughter that their accumulated possessions form a “catalogue of love,” a belief system that binds them together even as it slowly consumes their living space.

When circumstances force Maria from this unusual home, she finds herself placed with foster mother Michelle, who offers something Maria has never known: a stable, caring environment. The transition introduces Maria to a different rhythm of life, one where walls aren’t lined with refuse and where the past doesn’t physically pile up in corners. Yet the emotional residue of her upbringing lingers, shaping her understanding of attachment, memory, and what it means to hold onto things — and people.

Years later, Michael, a former foster resident, returns to Michelle’s home temporarily while searching for a place of his own. He carries with him memories of the same household that once gave Maria refuge, and an immediate connection forms between them. As they spend time together, Michael becomes entangled in Maria’s world, drawn into her complicated relationship with the past and the parts of herself she has kept dormant.

What unfolds is a psychological portrait of trauma, inheritance, and the strange ways grief can manifest. The film explores how early experiences shape our capacity for intimacy, and whether the patterns we inherit can ever truly be broken. At its core lies a meditation on love itself — the forms it takes, the weight it carries, and the difficult journey of learning to let go.

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