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Film: It Lives Inside
Year: 2023
Director: Bishal Dutta
Writer: Bishal Dutta
Starring: Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa and Mohana Krishnan
Review:
This is a movie that I saw was playing at the Gateway Film Center and decided to give it a watch. I like to check out these festival films when able to support them in the cinema. The synopsis was something I read part of, so I knew that this would be dealing with a culture different from my own. That is something that ticks boxes for me as I like to learn about their folklore when able.
Synopsis: An Indian American teenager struggling with her cultural identity has fallen out with her former best friend and, in the process, unwittingly releases a demonic entity that grows stronger by feeding on her loneliness.
We start this off by going through the dark halls of a house. There are deep scratches on the door. We see two mangled corpses. There is also a book that looks quite aged on the floor. We then shift to our lead, Samidha (Megan Suri). She goes by Sam as she tries to fit in and seem less Indian and whiter. This causes her to buttheads with her mother, Poorna (Neeru Bajwa), who wants her to partake in their traditions. Sam isn’t interested. This also causes friction with the father, Inesh (Vik Sahay), who wants to give Sam space.
Sam then goes to school and we see that her new best friend is white. That is part of it. She has a crush on Russ (Gage Marsh). Sam pretends to not know Tamira (Mohana Krishnan) who is the friend from the synopsis. We see this other young woman looking disheveled and carrying a glass jar. Joyce (Betty Gabriel) is their teacher and she is fond of Sam. She inquires about Tamira. This comes off a bit racist as Joyce means well, but it seems that she expects Sam to know what is going on since they’re both Indian. That might not be the case, but I think the movie does this intentionally. They used to be friends but grew apart.
There is then an incident that happens. Tamira approaches Sam for help. The latter declines and in the process, this glass jar breaks. It upsets Tamira as she believes there’s a monster living inside of it. We saw earlier that she put a chunk of raw meat into the jar and that might not be keeping this at bay anymore. We then saw something take Tamira. No one else did and she was agitated before it happened.
A fight breaks out between Sam and her mother when she wants to leave a ceremony they’re doing. Part of it is to celebrate one of their deities from defeating a demon. The other is to pray for Tamira to have a safe return. When Sam refuses to join in, Poorna calls her out. Sam wants to help, but she is also torn wanting to live her own life. We also see that Tamira might not be dead yet either.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this movie is steeped in social commentary. I should warn you of that now. In my opinion though, it is well done. You can ignore it and just understand what it is being used to convey here. I don’t think that it is a detriment and is needed to tell this story.
Now that I’ve given that disclaimer, let me get into what I want to discuss. The first is going to be around Sam and her being a teenager. She is torn by following the traditions of their family and the want to assimilate. This is complicated by the fact that her mother wants her to follow the ways of her people, while her father wants her to find herself and then decide. The latter is how I think I’d want my child to be. Now I will say, being that I’m a white atheist, celebrating holidays is the extent for me. I’ve already told Jaime, my wife, that if she wants to introduce religion, I’m fine with it. I want our daughter, Mackenzie, to decide in the end. There’s also this issue that if you force things on a child, they’ll rebel. This happened to me on a surface level, but I was also allowed to decide things for myself. We get a bit of that duality from her parents.
There’s also another interesting layer here. Tamira stuck with the traditions of her family and this causes Sam to drift away. I’m not fully sure what this movie wants to convey. The creature is something from Indian lore. I don’t know if it was or something for the movie. If Sam does nothing, Tamira dies. She must decide to live her life how she wants to or to follow the traditions of her people. I like that we get to learn about this folklore as this hit a sweet spot for me.
Let me then delve into the creature a bit more. I tried to find what it is called, but since I saw this in the theater, I couldn’t. This is an ugly looking thing. I love that they went practical for it and it looks like a suit of sorts. If not that, something along those lines. The history behind it is great. If you face it alone, you burn from the inside out. You must trap it in a vessel. It will make you feel lonely by killing those around you. This is a perfect commentary when dealing with teens. That is something most everyone has felt at one time or another. How things play out here was interesting to me and the implications after.
I’ll then go over to the acting. I thought that Suri was solid as our lead. She can command that insecurity you need for a character of this age. She is going to be just fine after high school. This is just an awkward time. Where her character goes in the end was interesting as well with not exactly being happy. Bajwa was good as the traditional parent while Sahay is there to be more progressive. I liked Krishnan in her role. Gabriel was solid as well. I also thought that Marsh and the other teens worked for what was needed. The acting here was good across the board.
All that is left then is filmmaking. This was well-made in my opinion. The best part is the soundtrack. There is an eeriness to it that worked in building the atmosphere. This led the way for me. I’d also say that the cinematography was good. Part of the time, this creature is invisible. I like how they play with that as well as using lights for it to appear or disappear. That worked for jump scares. Also, the fear that it causes within people was good as well. I’ve already touched on the practical effects. We do get CGI. It is used for smoke and to enhance things. It isn’t great looking, but not enough to ruin this.
In conclusion, this is a solid film that is looking at folklore I’m not familiar with. There is good social commentary here about teens finding their place and traditions vs. new age. Focusing on a religion and ethnic group that is grounded in the idea of family conveys this well. I like the creature we got. The practical design was good. The acting was also sold around it to develop the characters. I’d also credit the soundtrack as the strongest part of filmmaking. The cinematography was solid as well. It is just CGI that didn’t necessarily hold up. This won’t be for everyone, but I enjoyed my time here and thought it has a good message to tell. I’d recommend this if what I said sounds good.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10