I always enjoy seeing scary movies in October, and since we are getting close to my favorite month, I decided to see It Lives Inside at the Broadway last night. I found it to be an interesting take on a traditional monster movie. High school student Samidha (Megan Suri), who prefers to be called Sam, has seemingly turned her back on her Indian culture and her former best friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan) in favor of fitting in with the more popular Caucasian kids and she is at odds with her very traditional mother Poorna (Neeru Bajwa). When a disheveled Tamira approaches her for help, Sam smashes the strange mason jar she is carrying which releases the monster living inside it. Tamira mysteriously disappears and an invisible demonic presence begins stalking Sam and harming those she loves. She eventually discovers that the demon is a Pishach and that she must embrace her heritage in order to defeat it. I really liked the use of Hindu mythology and the use of a monster as a metaphor for losing yourself in order to assimilate because this makes what could be seen as a derivative story (it reminds me so much of The Boogeyman) more compelling. There are some great tension-filled sequences, such as a shadowy figure hiding in the closet and an amorphous shape stalking Sam's teacher (Betty Gabriel) down a hallway, that are frightening more for what we don't see than for what we do. However, this makes the final confrontation, when we finally do see the monster, a little bit underwhelming because it is not as scary. None of the characters are well developed (I especially wanted to know more about Tamira) but Krishnan and Suri both give performances that sell the terror they feel very effectively. Despite a few flaws It Lives Inside is an intriguing way to begin the spooky season and I recommend it.
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