Banjong Pisanthanakun has confirmed that his psychological horror film Inherit will get a sequel, with Davika Hoorne returning as Woranart, the youthful-looking grandmother with a centuries-old centipede spirit. Inherit premiered in September as a Centrepiece selection at the Toronto Film Festival, is closing the Jakarta World Cinema festival, and opens across Thailand on Nov. 19.
The star and the formula
Pisanthanakun and Hoorne’s track record goes back to 2013’s Pee Mak, still Thailand’s biggest local box office hit of all time. That history is the practical logic behind the sequel: the director can reunite a proven horror-comedy pairing while Inherit carries festival credentials into its commercial run.
He told Variety that Hoorne was his first choice for the grandmother. “The character has to be sexy, beautiful, and funny at the same time,” he said, adding that his first image of her was a modern, adaptable figure sunbathing by a pool and speaking to ChatGPT. On set, he used two unlikely reference points: Catherine Tramell from Basic Instinct and Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs.
Why the sequel now
The confirmation arrives as the Thai film industry faces pressure. Pisanthanakun said the business is “not so good” right now and that he wants Inherit to bring Thai audiences back to cinemas. Public funding, he added, is neither robust nor consistent and tends to go to horror.
For buyers and marketers, the announcement is more than genre trade news. It shows where Thai producers are placing their recovery bets:
- Festival slots in Toronto and Jakarta prime the title for international sales before the local opening.
- Hoorne brings all-time-hit equity from Pee Mak and recent Cannes Critics’ Week recognition for A Useful Ghost.
- Pisanthanakun is also leading a Thai-Korean horror co-production, making cross-border financing part of the growth plan.
The talent bet beyond the sequel
Hoorne’s slate strengthens her value as a returning lead. She is producing girls’ love (GL) titles, the romance category between women that is popular in Thailand, and says funding for non-horror genres remains hard to find. Her short film Soap Opera has wrapped, and she plans to focus on TV series in 2027.
For media planners tracking Asian genre exports, the test is whether Inherit can convert festival attention into a strong Thai theatrical number. The sequel announcement gives the original a longer marketing tail before it even opens.
Source: Variety
