Film Review - It Lives Inside (2023)

Assimilation and identity are the name of the game in It Lives Inside. The feature directorial debut from Bisha Dutta, who also acts as the film’s writer, the film uses cultural mythology to explore the immigrant experience.

It Lives Inside follows teenager Samidha (Megan Suri). Preferring to go by ‘Sam,’ she at first appears to be a pretty typical teenager. She argues with her mother, has a crush on the popular boy at school and her primary concern is fitting in amongst her peers. But whilst Sam strives to fit in, her former best friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan) is doing anything but. Tamira has been acting erratically for a while and constantly clutches a glass jar much to the disdain of her fellow students.

Kindly teacher Joyce (Betty Gabriel) has also noticed Tamira’s strange behaviour and encourages Sam to reconcile with Tamira. However, Sam doesn’t want to be associated with another Indian student especially one who’s viewed as ‘crazy’ and when Tamira tries to tell her what’s in the jar, Sam loses her temper. In the ensuing confrontation, Sam accidentally breaks the jar that Tamira has been carrying and releases something monstrous.

It’s entirely refreshing to see a horror with an Indian American teenager as the central character and for the demonic creature to be taken from Hindu mythology. But whilst Dutta’s premise is a welcome one, the execution feels somewhat lacking and the result is a horror that simply feels like any number of other horrors in this sub-genre.

One of the film’s biggest strengths is ironically also one of its biggest weaknesses. It Lives Inside introduces audiences to the Pishach, a malignant entity that lives in the darkness and feeds on human flesh. The Pishach is a thoroughly intriguing proposition, ripe for creeping horror and fear induced anxiety. Yet, It Lives Inside instead uses jump scares to try and frighten the audience, each one lessening the effect of the next.

In spite of its issues, It Lives Inside does have moments of brilliance. The film is shot well by cinematographer Matthew Lynn and there are certain scenes where Dutta gives the audience powerful images that definitely stick their landing. In particular the closing shot is great. Suri’s central performance is very strong as is Gabriel’s turn as a teacher who demonstrates that teachers deserve a pay rise!

Whilst It Lives Inside doesn’t quite fulfil its promise, it does demonstrate that Dutta has interesting ideas. If his sophomore film is able to build on these ideas and explore them more deeply, then it could be something very special indeed. Assimilation and identity are the name of the game in It Lives Inside. The feature directorial debut from Bishal Dutta, who also acts as the film’s writer, the film uses cultural mythology to explore the immigrant experience.