Worth: $12.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan, Vik Sahay, Betty Gabriel, Gage Marsh
Intro:
… safe, M-rated, teen-focused horror movie with striking imagery, decent acting and occasionally effective scares …
Christian theology and iconography are the fat of the land when it comes to horror movies. You could scarcely name on the fingers of two hands and both feet, the number of genre flicks that have featured a scrappy priest, or ardent believer, bellowing Bible verses at a demon or dark entity. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you. It’s hard to fault a trope that has resulted in films like The Exorcist, The Exorcist III and The Conjuring. Still, familiarity often breeds contempt and it’s nice to see other religions get a crack at making an impact in the spooky flick space. Judaism was used as an effective thematic springboard in 2020’s The Vigil and now It Lives Inside attempts to make Hindu iconography scary.
It Lives Inside (sadly unaffiliated with Larry Cohen’s classic killer baby series) tells the story of an American high school student of Indian heritage, Sam (Megan Suri). Ol’ mate Sam’s your typical teenager, ie. addicted to her phone, obnoxious to her family and deeply embarrassed by her very traditional mum, Poorna (Neeru Bajwa). However, when former childhood friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan) comes to her for help with a nefarious demon, Sam soon finds out some of the old traditions exist for a good reason.
It Lives Inside definitely benefits from having the perspective of a first generation immigrant, showing a teenager so desperate to assimilate into the monoculture that they’ll literally turn away from every aspect of their own cultural identity. It’s a good thing that the movie has this as a running theme, too, because otherwise the story is consistently generic. The first half in particular, feels like a checklist of been there/done that tropes you’ve seen a thousand times before. Things pick up a little in the back half, with writer/director Bishal Dutta delivering a couple of effective sequences, and solid performances from Megan Suri, and Betty Gabriel as Joyce the school counsellor, keep things engaging, but It Lives Inside never dares to try anything new.
If you’re in the mood for yet another safe, M-rated, teen-focused horror movie with striking imagery, decent acting and occasionally effective scares, It Lives Inside will probably offer a mildly good time. If, however, you were hoping for something more revelatory and game-changing in a cultural sense, that goes beyond bellowing Hindi at a demon or dark entity, then the power of It Lives Inside probably won’t compel you.
