Thai filmmaker Banjong Pisanthanakun is returning to the horror genre with INHERIT, a supernatural family drama built around a disturbing question: what if the most dangerous thing a family could inherit is a curse?
The film centres on Grandma Woranart, played by Davika Hoorne, an 80-year-old woman who mysteriously disappeared 50 years ago. When she suddenly returns to her wealthy family, the mystery deepens—because despite being away for half a century, Woranart appears to be in her 30s. Her return forces the family to confront questions about where she has been, why she has not aged as expected and why she has chosen to return now.
What initially appears to be an impossible family reunion soon becomes connected to a supernatural legacy that has remained attached to the family’s bloodline. At the centre of that legacy is an ancient centipede spirit and a curse that threatens to pass from one generation to the next.
The family’s youngest generation becomes particularly important as the secrets surrounding Woranart’s disappearance begin to surface. Her 18-year-old granddaughter may be the next person forced to carry the supernatural burden, turning the family’s hidden history into a threat that could continue into another generation.
The premise also gives INHERIT its title. In most families, inheritance is associated with wealth, property, possessions or something valuable passed from one generation to another. Here, however, the inheritance is something the family would rather escape. The film turns the idea of inherited privilege into inherited horror, suggesting that wealth cannot protect the family from a darkness that has followed its bloodline for generations.
INHERIT is based on the classic Thai horror novel Tayat Asun, which was first published in 1991. The story has previously been adapted for television, but the new film marks its first feature-film adaptation, bringing the decades-old supernatural story to a new audience in theatrical form.
The film also marks an important return for its director. Banjong Pisanthanakun, whose work includes the influential Thai horror film Shutter and The Medium, is returning to directing after several years away. His involvement gives INHERIT added significance within contemporary Thai horror, particularly given his previous work with supernatural stories rooted in family, belief and cultural mythology.
At the centre of the film’s mystery is not simply the existence of the curse but the unexplained period in Woranart’s life. What happened during the 50 years she was missing, and what brought her back to the family after such a long absence? The answers appear to be tied directly to the supernatural inheritance that could eventually reach her granddaughter.
That approach gives INHERIT a horror premise that operates on two levels. The supernatural threat is rooted in an ancient spirit, but the family’s own history is what allows that threat to continue. The horror therefore comes not only from something outside the family, but from something that has been quietly passed down through it.
For a family that seemingly has everything, INHERIT suggests that wealth and status may ultimately offer little protection from the past. Its most valuable possessions may not be what the family has accumulated, but the secrets it has carried—and the curse that may now be waiting for the next generation.
Read More: