Ever since I watched It Comes At Night, I’ve become rather apprehensive of films with a title that has a phrase that starts with the word “It” because I immediately wonder what it is. When a film title starts with the word “It,” I assume that there is something of significance or supernatural capabilities, for example, It Follows. It Comes At Night irritated me for being a bait-and-switch title because the “It” in that movie was just a concept and nothing tangible. It Lives Inside, thankfully, avoids this mistake as the “It” is very much something supernatural, but does it manage to rise above mediocrity?

Pros

Decent acting from most of the cast
Some of the creature designs are cool
Not overly long
First two acts do not show much of the creature

Cons

Way too much of the Pishach is shown by the end; it loses any sort of intimidation by the film ends
Character behavior inconsistencies are not completely justified within the film
Climax has a stupid eureka moment after undercutting the rest of the film
Typical modern storytelling tropes and cliches
Rules do not seem consistent

Plot & Thoughts

Sam (Megan Suri) is the teenage daughter of Indian immigrants who is trying to fit in at her local American high school. She’s doing well scholastically and seems to have plenty of friends, but her relationship with her mother, Poorna (Neeru Bajwa), is strained because of Sam’s desire to move away from her Indian heritage to fit in. In addition, her childhood friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan) has been acting strange lately, carrying a dirty jar around with her and muttering prayers in Hindi. After a brief altercation between the two, the jar is broken, and something kidnaps Tamira, leaving Sam to investigate what has happened to Tamira and the mysterious evil that was haunting her.

The main strengths of It Lives Inside come from having a creature based on mythology, not commonly used in Western horror films. So, it made me curious to know more about the demon, called the Pishach, and the rules for how it functions as a monster. While I would say the film does not necessarily fall flat in its storytelling, my overall opinion of it continued to drop the longer the film went on. By the time the movie was over, any intimidation the Pishach had was completely destroyed by being shown too much and by being far too tangible a creature. The early depictions of it make the thing seem ethereal, and it’s mostly depicted as something invisible, so I was hopeful that would continue. However, the third act shows way too much, and it is also easily dispatched by some physical interactions that make it seem far less intimidating.

Without the mystery of the Pishach, It Lives Inside does not have a lot going for it. It’s not bad, as most of the actors do a good job of making the movie engaging, with the occasional instance of overacting. However, the overall formula of the film is one that has been done to death in the past. It’s a PG-13 horror film that would fit right in with numerous other mediocre PG-13 horror movies that involve a curse of some sort in which a malevolent entity is haunting someone, i.e., Darkness Falls, The Boogeyman, Annabelle, etc. The jump scares are unsurprising. The way the story is told is predictable. It Lives Inside is thankfully less than two hours, so even though it’s rather dull, it doesn’t totally overstay its welcome.

To give the film a little credit, I found the subplot between Sam and her mother to be the most compelling part of the movie. The two actors do a good job of making them feel like characters who care about each other but have diverging perspectives. The strain between the two provides justifiable drama to emerge under the stress of the existential threat of the Pishach. The problem in these dramatic moments and a few others is that the characters say or do things that seem exceedingly harsh or slightly out of character. You could argue that it is the influence of the demon haunting them, but the movie doesn’t necessarily give indications, subtle or otherwise, that their decisions are being manipulated in some way.

Also, the tone of this movie can be a little off during its emotional moments. One decision I felt was particularly weird was how the scene in which the conflict between Sam and her mom is resolved was cut together with another scene in which the Pishach was actively attacking someone in another location. It was emotional whiplash going back and forth between a moment that was meant to be solemn and heartfelt, with one in which a woman is screaming and the monster is hunting her. An odd editing choice, to say the least.

TL;DR

It Lives Inside starts off promising enough with an intriguing new monstrous legend from Hindu folklore to explore. Unfortunately, it squanders a lot of its goodwill by the finale, and it ends up being another mediocre PG-13 horror movie that goes through various tropes and cliches that have been done over and over in other films. Despite the efforts of its actors and the somewhat compelling subplot between Sam and her parents, It Lives Inside ruins its monster and ends up being just an inoffensive but middling affair.

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