A teen must learn to embrace her culture to defeat a demonic entity with a hunger for human souls. Written and directed by Bishal Dutta in his feature debut, It Lives Inside is a classic supernatural horror with effective frights, but its strengths lie in its offering of underrepresented lore.
In an attempt to fit in with the kids at school, Sam (Megan Suri) has mostly turned away from her East Indian values. Her mother continues to push her to be active in the traditions, but Sam begrudgingly participates to please her. She’s even been so desperate to assimilate that she’s discarded her childhood best friend, Tamira (Mohana Krishnan).
While Sam has somewhat blossomed, Tamira has become distant and disheveled. One day, Tamira reaches out to her old friend for help, insisting she has something evil contained in a jar. Disinterested in her fabrications, Sam smashes the jar, thus unleashing the monster Tamira’s been so fearful of and making herself a target.
It Lives Inside is a strong debut and impressively done on a tight budget. Even though it’s not overtly distinct from similar films, it has a lot of strengths in its foundation.
It boasts an inventive monster with an exceptional practical design. There are some wonderful scares in both subtle taunts and jump moments. Although, it did feel like there could have been more, as the film loses tension and steam in some areas. It seems to carry its most satisfying frights in the first act and then feels weak throughout the remainder.
Dutta certainly has a keen eye and vision for horror storytelling. You can see his inspiration, though not just focused on paying homage to the films that inspired him. There’s enough of himself present in the story, as well as his unique monster.
The film holds power in its cultural focus, seeing how Sam struggles with angst towards her ancestry. High school is already such a heightened time to feel the desire to fit in, and of course, that pressure is sadly deeper for kids who don’t match a Westernized view.
We see how she is somewhat insecure with her looks, shortening her name from Samidha to the more American “Sam”. Even her insistence on not speaking Hindi at home despite that being her mother’s preferred language.
I found Dutta to balance this aspect well, which he pulled from his own experience, and it certainly allows things to hold more weight as the story builds up to its conclusion.
For so long, the American horror films that garnered the most buzz were always films with mythology steeped heavily in Christianity. It’s always a treat to see a supernatural horror that presents a view into other religions — and their superstitions and legends.
It Lives Inside shows that diverse stories can bring new life into otherwise repetitious tales while including important commentary. And while not the most frightening of films, it has interesting aspects that are fun to explore.
Jordy Reviews It 
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