It Lives Inside
review by Bobby Blakey
One of the great things about the horror genre is that it crosses all cultures. When the specific culture is fused into the story it often times makes it all the better. The latest, It Lives Inside looks to be this sort of thing and stars Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa and Mohana Krishnan from director Bishal Dutta. Could this film bring something fresh and new inside the horror genre or should it have never gotten inside at all?
It Lives Inside follows Sam who is desperate to fit in at school, rejecting her Indian culture and family to be like everyone else. When a mythological demonic spirit latches onto her former best friend, she must come to terms with her heritage in order to defeat it.
The concept of this film and the trailers had me really intrigued on the direction this film could go if handled right. The story is simple enough and the film is a very slow burn so one that might lose some early on if they aren’t willing to just let it unfold. It does take a bit longer than I would have liked to get to the meat of it all, but does end up with a satisfying finale.
The entire film hinges on the performance of two people, Megan Suri and Mohana Krishnan with the majority of the film sitting on Suri’s shoulders. Botha are great here with Suri knocking it out of the park. She brings a wide range of emotions and personality to the forefront dealing with both he terrors of the story and her own culture she is fighting against. As great as she is throughout Krishnan has a bit harder job in my opinion having to keep the darker persona at all times and clearly something off with her.
Both of them are excellent and elevate the film when it limps along at times with their performances. The rest of the cast is good as well, but it is their show. The
pacing of the film is slow as mentioned previously for most of the run time, but in a way that I still found interesting thanks to the cultural infusion it entails. It could have easily been yet another of the same old things, but the added nuances and heritage it deals with gives it something original.
The final act amps things up complete with practical effects and some cool creature effects. Sure it is similar to things we have seen before and not really doing anything all that new, but still brings it home and makes it a film worth checking out and serves up a story that could easily bring about a franchise with very little effort.
Decide for yourself and grab your copy of It Lives Inside when it hits DVD on November 7th from NEON.