It Lives Inside review.
It Lives Inside benefits from its exploration of cultural customs and beliefs. It’s held back by a stubborn refusal to truly set its demon free.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
It Lives Inside
Directed by Bishal Dutta
Written by Bishal Dutta and Ashish Mehta
Starring Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan, Betty Gabriel, Vik Sahay, Gage Marsh, Jamie Ives and Siddharta Minhas
It Lives Inside Review
When people talk about the importance of representation in media, they’re talking about the positives of seeing other customs and beliefs expressed on screen. That’s important to both the people seeing themselves represented in stories and to the people unfamiliar with anything outside of their own comfort zone. Ignorance breeds contempt, after all. It’s impossible to quantify the importance of diversity in media…for both the represented and for those exposed to something outside of their bubble. Good representation often results in a deeper understanding of one of life’s most important lessons. The things that frighten you through lack of knowledge are always way more relatable than you probably thought.
It’s deeper than that, obviously…but ask yourself why certain sections of the population are so uncomfortable with female led super-hero movies or LGBTQ+ characters in sitcoms. It’s a lot harder to foster hatred of something when people can see that there is nothing to be angry about. There’s a less important side effect too. One that comes up in horror movies more than anywhere. Something that we’ve seen in recent releases like Attachment and its exploration of demon lore…or Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion and its ability to grow atmosphere through religious practices. Frankly…it’s far more interesting to learn about the dark corners of a culture that you aren’t familiar with than it is to see a Catholic priest recite the same passages in every exorcism movie.
Those dark corners of lore are what fuel It Lives Inside. As does its examination of Hindu customs and the generational detachment that can arise when a family starts a new life in another country. Like all good representation…what we find is completely relatable. With the extra benefit of not being able to predict every move the story will make as it reveals those sinister parts of an unfamiliar lore. It Lives Inside succeeds when it focuses on these aspects of the world. It falters in its presentation of the film’s evil.
The story revolves around a demon unleashed from its temporary containment inside a jar. When the jar breaks It Lives Inside teases a lot of fun to come. It largely fails to follow up in delivering that fun, however. The rules of the demon can be difficult to pin down. Sometimes you see it…sometimes you don’t. Sometimes it attacks what it is after…sometimes it doesn’t. There’s a genuine weakness whenever the movie attempts to be scary. It’s unfortunate given that so much of It Lives Inside does work.
The story feels fresh and the inclusion of customs not traditionally at the center of horror movies maintains a high level of interest. The cast is excellent. They wring familial drama out of the situation and provide appropriate terror reactions. They’re just reacting to next to nothing. While the production quality is high in It Lives Inside…and there are a few inspired usages of light and shadow…too many of the film’s tricks involve low stakes encounters with an invisible foe.
Luckily, It Lives Inside spends a good deal of time presenting what it is good at. It’s a better drama than a horror movie. Samidha (Megan Suri) is a high school student wrestling with her desire to fit in and her mother’s attempts to keep her connected to her heritage. Sam (as she prefers to be called) ends up wrapped in the demon drama when she breaks former friend Tamira’s (Mohana Krishnan) strange jar. Tamira disappears after claiming that a monster has been set free…leaving Sam to investigate the history of the demon and its connection to Hindu customs.
Sam is a strong lead character. Almost strong enough to hold together the slapdash nature of the newly freed demon. Suri plays all sides of Sam with a realistic, relatable feeling. Her relationships with her parents (and one invested teacher) provide more interest than the loose demon manages to. Her conflict between the modern and the traditional gives It Lives Inside more depth than the average high school horror story. It’s almost unfortunate that all roads lead to an unfocused demon.
It Lives Inside keeps its monster trapped in a metaphorical jar even after it narratively releases it into the world. It hesitates to take risks and keeps the stakes too low. Had it fully unleashed the evil to pair with a solid structure, cast and representation…something special could have been achieved. Instead, we’re left with good drama that is weighed down by being a monster movie.
Scare Value
Without an exploration of Hindu customs at its core, It Lives Inside would be unmemorable. Defined by its lack of risks. Thankfully, the film focuses on the heritage and culture of its protagonist enough to deliver an interesting story…but hardly ever a scary one. For a movie about trying to trap a monster in a bottle…it oddly keeps any possible fun bottled up. A commitment to frights as strong as the one to culture commentary could have delivered something truly special.
2.5/5
It Lives Inside Link
In theaters September 22 – Fandango
2 thoughts on “It Lives Inside Review”