Inherit is not part of the Midnight Madness lineup at the Toronto Film Festival, but the Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter) cinema nonetheless remains absolutely crazy. This is a midnight horror film with cheeky humor that accompanies centipedes and decapitations, plus an ass-kicking nun who may or may not save the family. Inherit. This family is mostly rotten to the filthy core, and they’re no match for the villainy of a scene-stealing monster.
The devil is beautiful in Inherit.
Technically not a devil, but a possessed grandmother with an 800-year-old centipede demon pulling her strings. Grandma Woranart (Davika Hoorne) is 85 years old, but she looks no older than 25 when she visits her grieving family.
Pisanthanakun’s film rightly opens with death. Su (Sinjai Plengpanich), the demon’s niece, has lost her mother. She now has a family of sinners. There’s the shady husband, responsible for a chemical spill and the deaths of several children, and their two sons, a guilt-riddled teenager and an expectant father with the nastiest secret of all. The only innocent in the family is young Oui (Baipor Thitiya Jirapornsilp), in whom grandmother Woranart takes a keen interest…
Su hasn’t seen her aunt since she was a child. It’s a comically glamorous reintroduction as the 85-year-old enters the scene like a lethal model on a catwalk, all dressed in angelic white, save for her blood-red glasses. Everyone is surprised by his youthful appearance, which Woranart excuses as having had every cosmetic job imaginable done.
Some buy it, some say she uses black magic (correct), and others are too polite to comment.
It doesn’t take long for Woranart to wreak havoc, nor for Pisanthanakun to arrive at fantastical carnage. The filmmaker delights in each of Woranart’s killings, as she consumes strangers and sinners to keep her appearance beautiful and youthful. The deaths are cruel and swift, often imaginative. There’s a particularly satisfying part involving an escalator and a decapitation, held back only by some crooked CG blood.
The presence of Davika Hoorne is the real killer in InheritHowever. Imagine Cruella de Vil if she loved dark magic – a demon fond of gruesome murders and exquisite outfits. Hoorne is hilarious and menacing as the mysterious demon, not to mention persuasive. She is not THE monster in the movie. She puts forward convincing arguments. She does all this with a smirk and an evil twinkle in her eye. It’s a richly written antagonist, a lovable villain, and an absolute juggernaut of a performance from Hoorne, whose true nature of the character is revealed with great relish.
When Pisanthanakun answers questions about the demon and possession, he neither dispels the mystery nor slows the momentum. Here, the answers are as satisfying as the blood on the walls. There’s a whole mythology here and a world of light fighting darkness – including the coolest nun since Night of Demons IINun Saengboon (Warattaya Nilkuha). A stoic and benevolent hero, not just the creature, appears Inherit. Nilkuha and Hoorne facing off against each other, surrounded by supernatural elements, is exceptional fun.
The rest of the set could have taken a little more time to cook. Again, family isn’t really the subject. Inherit. Sometimes it’s more exciting when the audience is closer to the hunter than the prey. Especially when the huntress is Davika Hoorne who puts on a five-star death show. The monster is a star in Inherit.
Music from the film: 4/5
