It Lives Inside

Directed by Bishal Dutta, It Lives Inside follows Megan Suri’s Samidha as she becomes increasingly convinced that she’s being pursued by a malevolent entity. Filmmaker Dutta, working from his own screenplay, does a decent job of initially luring the viewer into the progressively hit-and-miss proceedings, as It Lives Inside opens with a promising early stretch that’s heightened by a compelling, slightly innovative setup – which ensures, at least initially, that the movie’s low-rent and distinctly rough-around-the-edges feel is relatively easy to overlook. It’s clear, then, that one’s patience and enthusiasm is tested by a predictably slow-moving, slow-burn midsection, with the less-than-gripping vibe compounded by Dutta’s reliance on overly familiar (and rather tiresome) horror-movie tropes and conventions – including (and especially) an emphasis on Samidha’s continuing attempts at figuring out just what’s going on (ie it’s the exact sort of investigation-type scenario that’s dragged down countless other similarly-themed endeavors). And while Dutta does an effective job of peppering the proceedings with a few admittedly stirring jolts (eg a character is brutally murdered while sitting on a swing set), It Lives Inside builds towards a fairly underwhelming climax that ensures it concludes on a far-from-enthralling note – with the end result an ambitious misfire that’s never quite able to blend its horror and drama elements as seamlessly as Dutta has obviously intended.

** out of ****