TAGLINE, GENRES, LOGLINE, SYNOPSES, BIOS, MEDIA

TAGLINES

Evil runs in the family.

If you’re not afraid, you’re not alive…

GENRES

A psychological horror film that features supernatural drama, occult thrills and central gay characters.

LOGLINE

In 1984 a family throws a 14th-birthday party for Cory and Jessie. 30 years later, what’s left of the family re-unites for the father’s funeral, at two isolated houses in the forest, historically a hotbed of witchcraft. There, horrific truths are slowly uncovered about the family’s occult pact with an ancient evil that has secretly been at the core of their wealth and power, as the remaining siblings uncover the true bloody darkness behind their inheritance…

SHORTER SYNOPSIS

Flashback video footage from 1984 shows the 14th-birthday party of Young Cory and his twin sister Jessie. It’s an apparently normal scenario, including Cory’s older sibling Fiona and his half-brother Rex. However, also present is Pamela, who wields secret power in plain view, being in reality a witch and the head of a murderous occult church that holds this family in its grip.

Flashing forward, we meet these characters 30 years later, on the occasion of the patriarch’s death, when family tensions are rising over the substantial estate he is leaving behind. Cory and his boyfriend Lars arrive at a secluded house in the woods, not far from his father’s cabin where Pamela has taken up residence. She is close to death and is supported by Rex, who now acts as her constant companion and fellow practitioner in her dark occult arts.

Fiona arrives, after decades of emancipation from the family, and brings with her memories of their childhood that Cory has suppressed for so long: memories of the outrageous violence and occult mysteries that Pamela has orchestrated in order to attain the family’s great wealth and privilege…

SYNOPSIS

Flashback video footage from 1984 shows the 14th-birthday party of Young Cory and his twin sister Jessie. It’s an apparently normal scenario, including Cory’s older sibling Fiona and his half-brother Rex. However, also present is Pamela, who wields secret power in plain view, being in reality a witch and the head of a murderous occult church that holds this family in its grip.

Flashing forward, we meet these characters 30 years later, on the occasion of the patriarch’s death, when family tensions are rising over the substantial estate he is leaving behind. Cory and his boyfriend Lars arrive at a secluded house in the woods, not far from his father’s cabin where Pamela has taken up residence. She is close to death and is supported by Rex, who now acts as her constant companion and fellow practitioner in her occult arts.

Fiona arrives, after decades of emancipation from the family, and brings with her memories of their childhood that Cory has suppressed for so long – memories of the outrageous violence and dark mysteries that Pamela orchestrated in order to attain the family’s great wealth and privilege.

Back in the current day, Pamela begins her ascent into a new life cycle, which renews the pressure on Cory and re-focuses him on the path that she once fated for him. He fights the hypnotic forces that pit Lars and Rex against him, and fights for his life as he tries to regain his natural birthright and head the new family alongside Pamela.

At the last moment, will Pamela allow Cory back into the fold of her church, to inherit the witch, or has she been manipulating him all along for her own even more evil ends?

BIOS

Cradeaux Alexaander – Writer/Director and cast as Cory – IMDb listing here

Cradeaux Alexander is from Los Angeles, California and currently lives and works in London, UK … though at heart he’s probably a New Yorker. He studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and went on to work with seminal theatre artists Mabou Mines and Richard Foreman, all the while acting in film, TV and theatre and directing his own works. Directing highlights include premieres and radical interpretations of plays by Picasso, Beckett, Fassbinder, Ionesco and Mueller. After moving to London he obtained a PhD in fine art at Royal College of Art, with a special focus on the actor and performance art. Recent forays into directing for television and film include two seasons of the web series Doctor Theatre, short films Overture and Triptych, and his most recent piece, this feature film Inherit the Witch. His work has been the focus of BBC’s nationwide Front Row programme, and CNN International’s Amanpour programme. His series screenplay The Cult in the Wings was recently named as quarter-finalist for the Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship.

Rohan Quine – Producer and cast as Rex – IMDb listing here

Rohan Quine is an actor, a producer, and an author of literary fiction with a touch of magical realism and a dusting of horror. He grew up in London, then lived in L.A. and for a decade in New York, where he ran around excitably, saying a few well-chosen words in films and TV shows such as Zoolander, Election, Oz, Third Watch, 100 Centre Street, The Last Days of Disco, The Basketball Diaries, Spin City and Law & Order: SVU. In addition to their print and ebook formats, his award-winning two novels (The Beasts of Electra Drive and The Imagination Thief) and four novellas (The Platinum Raven, The Host in the Attic, Apricot Eyes and Hallucination in Hong Kong) are all available in audiobook and video-book formats, performed and produced by Rohan; for which see here. Recent projects include acting in and producing both seasons of the web series Doctor Theatre, and this feature Inherit the Witch.

Heather Cairns – cast as Fiona – IMDb listing here

Heather Cairns has extensive credits across stage and screen. She has just finished shooting for the Bollywood web series Kanneda, whilst recent credits include an appearance in Season 2 of the DC-affiliated Pennyworth for Warner Television and as Jim Morrison’s mother in ITV’s Doors biopic. Alongside several stage performances including runs at Jermyn Street Theatre, Greenwich Playhouse, The Place Theatre and Baron’s Court Theatre, she can currently be seen on Netflix playing Lída Baarová in Hitler’s Circle of Evil and on 4OnDemand delivering a comic turn as a doting mother in Series 5 of Tattoo Fixers. With a TV drama pilot currently in post-production, alongside her performance in Inherit the Witch Heather will be seen this year in a further feature film and a well-known television series, both of which are currently under NDA.

Christopher Sherwood – cast as Lars – IMDb listing here

Christopher Sherwood is currently appearing on Netflix in the feature film In From The Side, playing the captain of an inclusive rugby team. He also plays a hapless film director in All Is Vanity, which was selected for the BFI London Film Festival in 2021. He plays a lead role in short film Hornbeam, which was long-listed for Best British Short Film at The British Independent Film Awards 2022 and for which he won a Best Performance award at Brighton Rocks International Film Festival. Recent TV appearances include Eastenders and Sister Boniface Mysteries.

Imogen Smith – cast as Pamela – IMDb listing here

Imogen Smith trained at ALRA and is experienced in Shakespeare, classical theatre, comedy, improvisation, audio, live interpretation and role-play, as well as film and audio work. Highlights include working with Christopher Fry and Steven Berkoff. She has a good ear for accents; is a good mover, including the Lindy Hop and the tango; and speaks some Russian and French. Associate Artist of Theatre Mélange. She played the dying mother in the award-winning film Between the Silence. Recent theatre work includes Gretel in Restoration, Mrs Rochester in Sherlock Holmes and the Invisible Thing, Other Lil in Apples and Angels (performed in an apple orchard) and Florence Nightingale in Victorian Women in Bed.

Elizabeth Arends – cast as Younger Pamela – IMDb listing here

Elizabeth Arends will next be seen in Abruptio alongside Jordan Peele and is currently voice recording and performing motion capture work for a new game for Electronic Arts. ​Recent TV appearances include New Amsterdam, EmmerdaleLethal Weapon and Battle of the Sexes. She appeared alongside Joseph Fiennes in On Wings of Eagles, and as the lead in the horror film Alone. She recently starred in a theatre tour across the U.S., The Crown Live; and previously starred in the stage play Loot, winning a Robby award for her turn as the conniving Nurse Fay. She trained at Northern Ballet as a classical ballerina and in voice acting, before hitting the stage. She has worked on a wide variety of performance capture and motion capture projects, recently working with Robert Zemeckis on scratch audio and performance capture for Pinocchio and The Witches. Elizabeth also creates her own content, which has ranged from feature film to web series and shorts.

Graham Pountney – cast as the Grand Witch – IMDb listing here

After training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Graham Pountney worked in regional theatres and appeared in several TV series. With 45 years in the performing arts and media, his career has encompassed film, TV, radio and rep theatre in the UK, as well as International touring, the Royal National Theatre and London’s West End. A favourite TV series he starred in was Howards’ Way back in the late 1980s, and the film Goodbye, Mr. Chips with Martin Clunes. He was a founder and leading player in the British Actors Theatre Company, and a director of The Original Shakespeare Company in the 1990s, performing at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on Bankside. He was recently the Associate Artistic Director of the Leatherhead Theatre Rep Company. Journey’s End by R.C. Sherriff is his biggest and most ambitious directing production to date – but Graham’s not just producing and directing, he’s also playing the Colonel. He founded Theatre Reviva! in order to bring regular, seasonal, professional theatre productions back into his local area.

Raffaele Nocerino – Director of Photography – IMDb listing here

Raffaele Nocerino is a Director of Photography based in London, whose work spans commercial, documentary, promo and narrative. He’s won a number of festival cinematography awards, including a selection for Tribeca with a recent music video. He focuses mainly on narrative work, putting visuals always at the service of the story to be told.

François Evans – Composer – IMDb listing here

François Evans is a British/French film composer. Born in London, he wrote the music to Edgar Wright’s first feature, and has since composed for award-winning films with actors including Vanessa Redgrave and Jim Broadbent. Born in London, he wrote the music to Edgar Wright’s first feature and has since composed for award-winning films with actors including Vanessa Redgrave and Jim Broadbent. Classically-trained at City University of London, he won a Ralph Vaughan Williams Scholarship to the acclaimed IRCAM music research institute in Paris. Evans specialises in integrating orchestra with surreal electronic sound transformations. In 2013 he set up a film music recording studio near La Rochelle in West France. His thrilling spectral soundtrack for Inherit the Witch features a vintage ondes Martenot with disturbingly unnatural human and animal sound transformations.

Kiera Mayhew – Makeup Designer – IMDb listing here

Kiera Mayhew is a makeup and hair artist who specialises in prosthetics. She has been actively working in the film and tv industry since 2018 and graduated from Arts University Bournemouth with first class honours in Makeup for Media and Performance in 2020. Her IMDb credits include those for Disney, Netflix and Marvel. In her most recent work of 2023, she spent two months on location in Morocco and Rome working on new feature film Cold Storage as a key member of the prosthetics team.

Poster for "Inherit the Witch", directed by Cradeaux Alexander, produced by Rohan Quine
"Inherit the Witch" poster