Film
Desperate to integrate in school, Sam rejects her Indian culture and family to better resemble her classmates. When a demon spirit named Pishach takes possession of her former best friend, she must reconnect with her cultural background to try and stop it. A bloodcurdling exploration of one’s roots, Bishal Dutta’s debut feature is a love letter to her community as well as to visceral horror movies.
The universal anguish of school teens meets the very specific dread of being haunted by a demon spirit in It Lives Inside, a film that is first and foremost concerned with identity and the cultural legacy left by previous generations, and with how every one of us is shaped by them. A breath of fresh air on the American horror scene.
The first feature film from Bishal Dutta – a perfect example of how to use established tropes to modernise the genre by offering new ways to look at them – immediately puts him at the forefront of the new generation of North American horror filmmakers. After several of his short films successfully toured festivals, Dutta convinced the producers of Get Out, Us, and Blackkklansman, who financed his feature debut.
