When I interviewed director Nida Manzoor earlier this year about her delightful genre-bending action comedy Polite Society, she bemoaned the lack of South Asian representation in mainstream western cinema. “Usually, if I saw someone like me, it would be a bit part– owning a cornershop, or being a terrorist’s wife,” she recalled, “And I’m like, ‘Aww, no, can’t I be an action hero too?’” It Lives Inside, the new horror movie from Bishal Dutta, almost feels like an answer to Manzoor’s call. Like Polite Society, It Lives Inside is rooted very specifically in the culture and experiences of the South Asian diaspora– this time, a family of first-generation Indian immigrants in the magic-hour suburbs of America– and like much contemporary horror, its scares are grounded in relatable psychological trauma. But what is most refreshing about it– and what most brings to mind Manzoor’s plea– is its familiarity.
Samidha (Megan Suri) is a high schooler in the sleepy suburb of Wooderson Grove. Her problems are typical of an Indian-American teen: homework, managing the expectations of her traditionalist mother, the inevitable microaggressions that come with being a rare outlier in a majority-white school (“It’s not fair how easy it is for you!” her best white friend squeals as she helps her with her math homework). Sam’s one-time childhood playmate Tamira (Mohana Krishnan) has problems that are… harder to explain. Dressed head to toe in black, Tamira has taken to fleeing from conversation (though most are too intimidated to attempt one in the first place) and carrying around a mysterious black jar. Encouraged by a friendly teacher (Get Out’s Betty Gabriel) to reach out to her one-time friend, Sam eventually pries out of Tamira that the jar contains… something… which needs to feed and must not be let out. Inevitably, the jar is broken, and things get considerably worse from there.
One of the earliest establishing shots in It Lives Inside is a sign outside of Wooderson Grove High which cheerfully reads “HOME OF THE WEREWOLVES!” This scans as a bit of on-the-nose foreshadowing, but it isn’t really; It Lives Inside is not a werewolf movie, nor is its monster in any way a cultural analogue to the werewolf. Instead, it feels like a deliberate homage to the sort of mainstream teenage horror movie which would foreshadow its monster with a cheerfully doofy football mascot. It Lives Inside is distributed by indie powerhouse Neon and bears all the hallmarks of “elevated horror,” but it is clearly inspired by, and has affection for, high school horror classics like Carrie and The Faculty. Like those films of old, there is a charming sweetness in the care with which it handles its protagonists, and a gleeful nastiness in how it dispatches its supporting cast (a kill involving a swingset is particularly gnarly and inventive). In another time, these aims might produce a whiff of insincerity; now that doom and gloom are the horror norms, the film’s relative slickness is a breath of fresh air.
This is not to say, however, that It Lives Inside isn’t scary, or that it doesn’t take itself seriously. On the contrary, with its cursed objects, sunken-eyed believers, and unseen malevolent forces, it often plays like a sort of decolonized Lovecraft. Dutta’s horror creeps from a similar part of the psyche; his monster is of an ancient sort, rooted in traditions beyond our young heroine’s comprehension (if not necessarily her parents’). But where Lovecraft cast a suspicious (and very, very racist) eye toward such traditions, Dutta embraces them. The sinister being inside Tamira’s jar has been brought over from the old world, but so is the generational knowledge that allows Sam and her family to fight it.
It Lives Inside has the misfortune of arriving at a moment with no shortage of great horror movies, and I fear it may have trouble projecting its signal through the noise. Its use of the supernatural as a vehicle for cultural and psychological trauma never quite hits the operatic heights of the A24 canon, and its teenage horror trappings are never quite as infectiously fun as, say, a Scream. But it is something which, at the moment, is perhaps rarer than a great horror movie: a good horror movie. Too many fright films today are so preoccupied with meaning something that they become a chore to sit through (I’m thinking specifically of October 2021, when the only real options in theaters were the equally dreary Halloween Kills and Antlers); even more, as always, don’t try hard enough, and are even worse. It Lives Inside is a happy medium, smart enough to not feel like empty calories and visceral enough to be a good time at the movies. Sometimes, good enough is good enough.
It Lives Inside
2023
dir. Bishal Dutta
99 min.
Opens Friday, 9/22 @ Apple Cinema, Kendall Square Cinema, and assorted AMCs
