MIFF Session 1: IT LIVES INSIDE

Teenage Samidha is culturally wracked. She's pretty happily set into the America that her family moved to from India but is adolescently embarrassed by the old traditions. When she is approached by her estranged childhood friend Tamira, Sam chooses between her and her American friends by breaking the jar Tamira hugs as she walks the school corridors, creating her own reputation for weirdness. The shards on the floor. The ancient Hindu demon Pishach is loose in the world again.

Bishal Dutta's horror tale of culture collision and supernatural threat is a perfectly serviceable horror on the milder side. As a displaced folk tale with violent scenes, though, it carries a lot more power. Sam's wincing tolerance of her Indian heritage is in stark contrast to the ease she feels in the company of her American schoolfriends. That said, she doesn't miss sight of their frequent condescension and clunking assumptions about her ethnicity. Tamira's ookiness renders her a pariah and Sam finds her presence unbearable. Sam helps out at her family hosting the Hindu celebration but when she hears what sounds like ostracising disgust at Tamira's family, she flees the scene and goes to the school kids outdoor bash.

While this film does centre on a supernatural conflict it does do the cultural conflict better. There is genuine suspense, a well crafted monster and some effective atmosphere but these are hampered by an approach that allows them to be drawn out to the extent that the stakes feel lowered and the tension evens out. Scenes with the monster are effective but lack resonance. We see well choreographed violence and recall earlier instances but there is little mounting dread. This means that the horror only goes so far before it has to be inflated again. This doesn't make if a bad film. Actually, it stands well beside other mainstream fare from this year like The Boogeyman or M3GAN. No real memorable scares but a lot of interesting abstraction of a theme while hitting the marks and saying the lines.

It Lives Inside could play as a decent story of the pains of assimilation. Keep the horror but trim it to magical realism and you've got a nifty folk horror which won't need to ramp the scares. But this is a contemporary conventional piece, content to work adequately. You want some current horror to challenge you or dare you to enter unfamiliar places go for Skinamarink or Infinity Pool. This one is happy to serve you a jumbo popcorn with a side of personal heritage. Well, it is all it has to do. I just wish it changed the portions of those two dishes around.