While I appreciate the themes posed in the first half about assimilation and the struggles of connecting with a culture you're both from but not connected to at all, It Lives Inside decides to squander this deep and interesting angle in favour of the most cookie cutter horror tropes and scares imaginable. Unable to fully throw its punches due to a very restrictive PG-13 rating, It Lives Inside drops back to a level of mediocrity which is almost insulting given the promise it sets out the gate. I think they really could have had something special here, a monster from a seldom represented culture in the horror space, with an underlying message about the pressures of first generation immigrants in their respective new homeland, attempting to both adhere to the expectations of the place they're growing up, while also trying to connect with the culture and customs of their parents. A shame really, sometimes knowing that something could have been great is worse than it just being bad, and I truly think It Lives Inside could have been special.

Like a sari made in China, it's Indian but not very original. Sari not sari. It seems Indian mythology remains a rich, untapped playground for imaginative horror, so why does this movie content itself with an over-indulgence on dream sequences and extreme close-ups?

Lame entity, unscary, surface level culture themes, half-baked Indian folklore, horror tropes by the bucket and the story is uninteresting. It still manages to have a few moments of glory with the tension and a few scares. It looks good and the acting is pretty decent. The PG-13 rating seems to have been it's worst enemy, it's like it doesn't know when to kill a character off which is so frustrating. The stakes are low because of this. Also, it always breaks tension filled scenes with either a flashback or we visit another character meanwhile. ***It Lives Inside*** had it's moments but overall this was disappointing and generic.

Evidently continuing my trend of religious horror this week, this new movie is fascinating in that it’s religious horror that is, for once, NOT based on Catholicism. I don’t want to say too much, because it does a nice job of slowly revealing the basis for what’s going on to those unfamiliar with Hinduism, but it all also circulates around a strong theme of assimilation versus cultural identity.

It appears that our main character is rather disassociated from her peers and is rather unhappy with her life. We already have what looks like some ancient or possibly forbidden behavior. The strangeness has begun, and it's looking freaking wicked so far. Horrific events are unfolding, and the danger could be spreading out appears. Ancient folk or mythological entitites are terrifying to come up against, I feel for our cast in this delicious tale. This was an interesting tale from the east told here on the western shore.