I’ve been a fan of Banjong Pisanthanakun for a long time, going back to Shutter, and then Pee Mak and, more recently, The Medium, and he is back with a new film, titled Inherit – an ancient centipede spirit getting into the bloodline of a wealthy Thai family is not exactly the sort of thing that makes me want to sleep with the lights off, particularly because I absolutely hate anything involving too many legs anyway.
The first teaser has also now arrived ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it looks like Banjong is going back towards the darker, slower supernatural territory that made Shutter such a memorable horror film in the first place.
Something Is Very Wrong With Grandma
18-year-old Oui, played by Thitiya Jirapornsilp, family life takes a very strange turn when her grandmother Woranat, played by Davika Hoorne, suddenly reappears after having disappeared for half a century – there’s just one slightly awkward detail – Woranat doesn’t look like an elderly woman who has been missing for fifty years, as she appears to be in her thirties.
Naturally, this causes some questions.
Oui’s mother Sudaduang, played by Sinjai Plengpanich, becomes increasingly convinced that her mother’s return is connected to the evil spreading through the family, and the more they uncover, the more it looks as though Oui herself may be being prepared to become the next heir to an ancient curse – that setup sounds much creepier than the centipede description initially made it sound, and that sounded bad enough.
Banjong Is Back Behind the Camera
Banjong Pisanthanakun directs and co-writes the film, with Wave Thammasatit Charoenritchai and Ter Chantavit Thanasawet also credited on the screenplay. It’s his first feature as director since The Medium in 2021, which is quite a gap, and it makes Inherit more interesting to me.
This isn’t some filmmaker churning out another horror film every twelve months, Banjong has spent years moving between horror and comedy, but when he does return to darker material, he clearly knows what he’s doing – he directed Shutter, Alone, Pee Mak and The Medium, so the man’s CV is getting pretty difficult to argue with if you’re a fan of Asian horror, and I’m especially curious about the jump from The Medium to this because they’re very different setups.
The Medium went for documentary-style supernatural horror and gradually became completely unhinged, which Inherit appears to be much more of a family curse story, which feels closer to the traditional ghost and demon films Banjong made earlier in his career.
The Cast Is Pretty Strong
The film stars Davika Hoorne, Thitiya Jirapornsilp and Sinjai Plengpanich, alongside Waratthaya Nilkuha, Pakin Kunaanuwit, Chayanon Phakthin, Trin Setthachok, Pongsathorn Jongwilak, Kanjanaporn Plodpai, Govit Wattanakul, Nattawadee Kulthong and Juthapich Indrajundra.
Davika Hoorne is probably the name most horror fans will recognise internationally, as she previously worked with Banjong on Pee Mak, and she also starred in A Useful Ghost, so this isn’t her first time stepping into supernatural territory with a filmmaker who clearly knows how to use her.
But I’m probably most interested in Thitiya Jirapornsilp as Oui because the whole story seems to revolve around what happens to this young woman once the family’s buried history starts closing in around her, and having Sinjai Plengpanich playing the mother gives the family dynamic a bit more weight too.
This Comes From a Thai Horror Classic
Inherit is based on Tayard Asoon (Heir of the Demon), a Thai horror novel originally published in 1991 by Thep Chumsai Na Ayutthaya and the story has already been adapted for television, but this is the first feature-film adaptation, so there’s an opportunity here to take an older piece of Thai horror and see what happens when a filmmaker like Banjong updates it for a modern audience.
And the centipede spirit is a particularly interesting choice – I’m not even particularly frightened of centipedes, but there’s something about the idea of one being supernatural and connected to a family bloodline that sounds pretty good.
One thing that has also caught my attention from the early production information is that the film has been described as dealing with family, guilt and hypocrisy as well as the supernatural material, so there is clearly a mystery here that goes beyond evil spirit turns up and starts killing everybody.
At least, I hope so, as that’s where Banjong tends to work best for me, as he can make the supernatural stuff entertaining, but there’s usually something underneath it that keeps the story from just feeling like a collection of horror set pieces.
This Is One I’m Actually Looking Forward To
Inherit is set to have its world premiere at TIFF in September 2026, where it will screen in the festival’s Centrepiece programme.
I’m not going to say it’s going to be another Shutter, because that’s exactly the sort of comparison that can ruin a film before you’ve even seen it, but I am interested – very interested, actually – you’ve got Banjong Pisanthanakun, a Thai horror novel from 1991, a grandmother who disappears for fifty years and comes back looking thirty years younger, a family curse and a bloody ancient centipede spirit.
That’s enough for me.
And after The Medium, I’m quite happy to let Banjong take his time setting the thing up, and if the first teaser is anything to go by, Inherit might be the sort of horror where the really nasty stuff comes from gradually realising that something is horribly wrong rather than being shown the supernatural stuffquickly.
Which, in my opinion, is usually the better way of doing it.
Teaser Trailer
Check out some more Thai horror movies.
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