It Lives Inside

It Lives Inside is a 2023 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Bishal Dutta and starring Megan Suri. The film debuted at the 2023 South by Southwest film festival, and was released by Neon on September 22, 2023. Plot Samidha "Sam" is an American high school student of East Indian origin who has been assimilating into western society. While her mother, Poorna, is insistent that Sam continue to follow traditions and pay respect to her heritage, her father, Inesh, is less strict towards her. At school, Sam tries to reject her culture to fit in with her white friends, and has a budding romance with her classmate, Russ. In exchange for this, she has grown apart from her former best friend and fellow Indian student, Tamira, who is now a social outcast for acting withdrawn and carrying a strange glass jar. This concerns their teacher, Joyce, but Sam believes Tamira is fine. At night, Tamira feeds the jar raw meat but something inside the jar starts damaging it. The next day at school, Tamira privately approaches Sam for help in the locker rooms. She claims that a supernatural entity from a story they were told as children actually lives in the jar she carries around and it has been terrorising her. Sam, embarrassed and frustrated by Tamira, smashes the jar open, causing Tamira to have a panic attack. When Sam leaves to get help, Tamira is attacked by an invisible entity and goes missing. Sam feels guilty and begins to fear there is something sinister going on. She recovers a notebook Tamira had in her possession containing strange Sanskrit writings. Tamira is revealed to have been abducted and held captive by the entity, which attacks and mutilates her. Sam begins to notice a strange presence around her and starts to look into Tamira's claims. Meanwhile, Poorna grows more frustrated by Sam's disregard for Indian traditions, especially when she skips a special prayer for Tamira to hang out with Russ. Sam and Russ go to an abandoned house that belonged to another Indian student, Karan, who died alongside his family in a supposed murder-suicide. The pair discover drawings depicting a creature on the walls. The strange phenomena escalates, unnerving Sam, while Tamira suffers from daily attacks and her escape attempt is foiled.