Davika Hoorne and Banjong Pisanthanakun Reunite for Toronto Title ‘Inherit’ — SkimNews
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- Davika Hoorne stars as Woranart, a grandmother in her 80s whose youthful looks conceal a centipede spirit searching for a new host, with Oui (Baipor Thitiya Jirapornsilp) emerging as the likely target in the film "Inherit."
- Banjong Pisanthanakun directs the film, which is based on the Thai horror novel "Tayard Asoon," translated in English as "The Demon's Heir," and will premiere in the Centrepiece program at the Toronto Film Festival.
- Hoorne told Variety that the role required capturing "the weight of her memories" through subtle signals like "a glance, a pause," describing it as a "real shift" from her previous horror work.
- "Inherit" reunites the pair from Pisanthanakun's 2013 blockbuster "Pee Mak," still the highest-grossing Thai film ever released, and follows Hoorne's Cannes 2025 Critics' Week Grand Prix-winning turn in "A Useful Ghost."
- Pisanthanakun said the family's mansion "actually combined three real locations plus a sound stage" to create a single location matching the film's exact mood, emphasizing the importance of location scouting in horror filmmaking.
- Pisanthanakun framed Thai ghost stories as national cultural heritage, comparing the country's call-in ghost-story programs to Japan's manga and Korea's webtoons, while pointing to "How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies," "Bad Genius" and "Death Whisperer" as proof Thai cinema is traveling well beyond the genre.
Why it matters: The premiere positions Hoorne—already a Cannes winner this year—and Pisanthanakun, director of the highest-grossing Thai film ever ("Pee Mak"), at a major North American festival platform, giving Toronto audiences and international buyers their first look at a genre-driven Thai film explicitly pitched as the next step in the country's expanding global cinema footprint.
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