By David Dent
The USP of Bishal Dutta’s rather dreary PG13 horror is the conflict faced by the central American Indian character, between her desire to live as a modern young woman and the pull of her family back into a more traditional lifestyle.
To her family she’s Samidha (Megan Suri), but to her friends she’s just Sam, with a hot boyfriend to be, Russ (Gage Marsh) and a sympathetic teacher, Joyce (Betty Gabriel). Her former bestie Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), also of Indian descent, has become withdrawn and taken to walking round school looking sullen and holding on to a glass jar as if her life depended on it. In a confrontation between the two Sam causes the jar to smash, which unleashes an ancient demon, the Pisach, a soul sucking entity whose origins are rooted in Indian myth, and who has designs on Sam’s friends and family.
Supernatural elements set aside (which they largely are apart from the last reel), It Lives Inside (a title that is as obvious as the movie itself) acts as an extended metaphor for the old teenage lament “no one understands me”. Suri makes for a rather unengaging lead, which isn’t great as she’s in pretty much every scene, and the fusion of Indian demonology and high school angst doesn’t really work. Despite the Hindu cultural background, there really isn’t an original idea here.
The pacing of the movie is arguably its biggest problem; It Lives Inside just drags, with little dramatic tension and scene after scene of fairly dull exposition. Maybe it’s the desire to create teen friendly horror; the camera doesn’t linger on the various kills denying horror lovers the main reason for watching the movie in the first place, and the Pisach remains largely invisible, which removes the threat. In its place is an emphasis on torpid emotional trauma which ultimately makes Dutta’s film a rather tedious – and overlong – experience.
It Lives Inside is coming to UK Cinemas from 20th October.
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