Director: Bishal Dutta
Cast: Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan, Vik Sahay, Gage Marsh, Beatrice Kitsos, Betty Gabriel
“It Lives Inside” is a highly anticipated supernatural horror film that follows the story of a young girl of Indian heritage who must reconnect with her roots to combat a malevolent supernatural entity.
Following a successful festival run and receiving glowing reviews earlier this year, the movie is generating significant buzz within the horror fan community on social media.
The Plot:
The story revolves around Samidha (Megan Suri), an Indian-American high school student, struggling to navigate her dual identity between her American school friends’ lifestyle and her traditional Indian heritage at home. Her mother, in particular, insists on communicating in her native language, highlighting Sam’s disinterest in engaging with their ethnic traditions.
However, when Sam’s estranged childhood best friend experiences a mental health crisis, Sam is thrust into the realm of Indian folklore as the mythological soul-eater, Pischach, enters her world, causing chaos and destruction. To vanquish this demon, Sam must reconcile her past with her present to ensure her survival.
Verdict:
Release Date: September 2023
While “It Lives Inside” initially appears to follow conventional horror tropes, it injects fresh life into the genre by incorporating Hindu folklore into a narrative deeply rooted in the immigrant experience.
A Complex Mother-Daughter Dynamic
The film’s standout element is the complex relationship between Sam and her mother, a dynamic that could have easily fallen into predictable patterns but is revitalised by Director Bishal Dutta’s choice to anchor it in the multifaceted cross-cultural tensions that define the experiences of Indian-American women from different generations.
Horror with a Cultural Twist
While not a complete departure from traditional horror conventions, “It Lives Inside” successfully achieves its goal by introducing Hindu folklore to a mainstream American commercial genre format.
Beyond the Demon
Dutta, though, did not just throw a terrifying “Pishach”- (a Hindu demon) at the audience and call it a day. He skillfully transforms it into a means of bringing the common worries that immigrants and the children of second-generation immigrants must continually contend with the spectacular, dreadful life.
The Importance of Integration
It Lives Inside underscores the importance of integrating, rather than suppressing, the mosaic of one’s past when moving to a new nation and building a life, or else it can have dire consequences for everyone involved.
It Lives Inside is screening now, so hurry up and go watch it in a theatre near you!
