Movie Review: "It Lives Inside" Is A Respectable Horror Debut for Director Bishal Dutta
8/12 ForReel Score | 3.5/5 Stars
In his directorial debut, Bishal Dutta’s new folktale horror film It Lives Inside, while not being anything new to the horror genre, is the latest entry in an exciting and evolving new wave of Gen-Z-oriented horror. Led by a mainly Desi cast, save for Betty Gabriel (Get Out, Upgrade), It Lives Inside is a surprisingly character-driven horror film, playing out more like a psychological thriller than the generic demon horror movie.
The film’s cinematography is subdued and fluid, somewhere along the lines of Spike Lee, Sam Raimi, and William Friedkin. Every shot either puts you in the headspace of the character in the frame or puts you in the perspective of the entity that haunts the aforementioned characters. The camera looms over them, skulks behind them, and waits for them as if it has narrative omniscience.
Directorially, Bishal Dutta has a powerful voice for a debut filmmaker, but the film’s screenplay and violence leave something to be desired. A little more viscera would have made the movie much more shocking and intense, but It Lives Inside still manages to be fresh and enjoyable in a hemisphere of Desi horror that Hollywood has finally ventured towards.
In the film, Sam primarily speaks English, especially around her Hindi-speaking parents at home. Much to her mother’s chagrin, Sam tries to assimilate into Western culture, even abandoning her given name, Samidha, for a more Americanized version. She sneers at her culture and traditions, such as when her parents prepare food for an annual Puja party, a social gathering dedicated to honoring deities and the recently deceased. While Sam’s father is relatively complacent about Sam’s detachment from her heritage, her mother, Poorna, sees it as an offense, which is the central character dynamic in the film.
It Lives Inside tends to side with Sam more than her mother, which gives the film a somewhat muddled voice. The film supports the embrace of heritage, but the argument scenes between Sam and Poorna don’t provide Poorna much argumentative support. Despite this, Sam increasingly embraces her culture as she learns that one of the deities from Indian folklore is real and is brutally tormenting Desi families around the suburbs, including her childhood friend Tamira.
The “it” that lives inside is a fantastic antagonist, as Dutta uses the Pischacha from Hindu mythology as the violent presence within the film. While not as brutal as it could have been, the Pischacha’s scenes are still frightening and tense, supplemented by a slow burn creature reveal that made my jaw drop. The transition from demon horror to a classic creature feature is seamless, and the design of the Pischacha is one of the most impeccably designed indie-horror monsters I have ever seen.
Dutta has an incredible sense of tension and release without being too predictable, which is a severe breath of fresh air in a subgenre as one-note as demon horror. Dutta always keeps you on your toes, and his editing patterns are tight and consistent with the tone he wants to maintain.
While not as macabre or dramatic as I would have liked, Bishal Dutta has a great debut and an extremely promising future in the horror genre. With great performances, strong cinematography, and a terrifyingly vicious monster, It Lives Inside is an entertainingly scary horror/psychological thriller that surprised and engaged me until the end.