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It Lives Inside is a new horror movie which, apparently was due out this month, but has now been put back to Oct 20th. As such, whilst clearly being aimed at the Halloween market, it may well be overshadowed by The Exorcist: Believer which is out two weeks earlier.
The film centres around Samidha (Megan Suri) – or Sam, for short – whose parents expect her to follow the traditional Indian heritage and processes, such as the upcoming Puja day, a family event which will require some preparation with her Mum, Poorna (Neeru Bajwa).
Meanwhie, the school basketcase, Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), is being very weird, indeed. She used to be Sam’s best friend but they stopped hanging out some time ago. To add to her bizarre behaviour, she always clutches a large jar, and claims there’s sort of creature within, because… (altogether now!) it lives inside.
And when they talked about having to keep it inside a vessel, I couldn’t stop thinking of the traps and containment unit in Ghostbusters.
Of course, whatever it is will escape, and it’ll be Grim Pickings for whoever it encounters. What… did you think nothing would happen and the film would be sunshine and rainbows for the next 90 minutes?
It Lives Inside is basically a creature-feature where the creature is invisible – although as the trailer shows, some people might just see something…
Beyond that, it’s so derivative you can hear the boxes being ticked, such as the school being noted for a kid dying there last year, and someone just happens to have a sort-of ‘Book of the Dead’, plus the usual onslaught of a ton of weird stuff happening with a smattering of bog-standard jump scares; and the reveal for why Sam needs to get involved in the first place is ridiculously stupid.
If there’s a difference with any other horror flick, I guess this is the first such movie with an Indian lead… perhaps. It’s also odd when some sentences see the characters spliting between both English and Hindi… changing mid-sentence? Really?!
It Lives Inside is in cinemas from October 20th, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 99 minutes
Release date: October 20th 2023
Studio: Vertigo Films
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 4/10
Director: Bishal Dutta
Producers: Raymond Mansfield, Sean McKittrick
Screenplay: Bishal Dutta
Story: Ashish Mehta
Music: Wesley Hughes
Cast:
Samidha: Megan Suri
Poorna: Neeru Bajwa
Tamira: Mohana Krishnan
Joyce: Betty Gabriel
Inesh: Vik Sahay
Russ: Gage Marsh
Karan: Siddhartha Minhas
Young Tamira: Saisha Muni
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.