It’s October and you know what that means – I finally have an excuse to fully indulge in horror or spooky-related movies.
I thought I’d kick off by reviewing “It Lives Inside” – a horror movie that pleasantly surprised me with how it portrayed the struggles of an immigrant family, a demonic entity, and an unhealthy dose of teenage angst.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at the flick and the way it handled the jump scare elements and created a parallel between what the main character felt and the actual atmosphere in the film.
It Lives Inside is a 2023 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Bishal Dutta and starring Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan, Vik Sahay, Gage Marsh, Beatrice Kitsos and Betty Gabriel.
The film clocks in at 99 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for terror, violent content, bloody images, brief strong language, and teen drug use.
Sam (Suri) is an American high school student of Indian origin who has been assimilating into Western society.
While her mother Poorna (Bajwa) is insistent that Sam continues to follow traditions and pay respect to her heritage, her father Inesh (Sahay) is less strict towards her.
At school, Sam shuns her mother’s packed lunches in favor of American meals and is friends with several white students, including a budding romance with classmate Russ (Marsh).
In exchange for this, Sam has grown apart from her former best friend and fellow Indian student Tamira (Krishnan), who is now a social outcast for acting withdrawn and carrying a strange glass jar.
This concerns their teacher Joyce Dixon (Gabriel), but Sam believes Tamira is fine.
At night, Tamira feeds the jar raw meat but something inside starts damaging it.
The next day at school, Tamira privately approaches Sam for help in the locker room.
She claims that a supernatural entity from a story they were told as children lives in the jar Tamira found and has been terrorizing her.
Sam, embarrassed and frustrated by Tamira, smashes the jar open, causing Tamira to have a panic attack while fleeing the locker room.
Sam confronts her in a stairwell and Tamira stares at something behind Sam that she can’t see while her panic attack grows.
When Sam leaves to get help, Tamira is attacked by an invisible entity and goes missing.
Sam feels guilty and begins to fear there is something sinister going on.
Later, she recovers a notebook Tamira had in her possession containing strange Sanskrit writings.
Tamira is revealed to have been abducted and held captive by the entity, which attacks and mutilates her.
Sam begins to notice a strange presence around her and starts to look into Tamira’s claims.
Meanwhile, Poorna grows more frustrated by Sam’s disregard for the family’s cultural traditions, especially when she skips a special prayer for Tamira to hang out with Russ.
Sam and Russ go to an abandoned house that belonged to another Indian student called Karan, who died alongside his family in a supposed murder-suicide.
But, that’s only half of a possible solution to Sam and Tamira’s problem and it’s worth watching the whole thing unfold on the big screen rather than waiting for a streaming or video release.
