It’s What’s Inside
Panic as preposterous as game nights has become great material for horror films with “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and “Talk To Me” being some of the biggest hits within its sub-genre this decade so far. Writer filmmaker Greg Jardin also taps into this format for his feature film debut It’s What’s Inside which is streaming on Netflix.
Cyrus (James Morosini) and Shelby (Brittany O’Grady) are partners, but things have been rocky between the two. Their relationship has lasted almost ten years and as there is no engagement or sex, everyday activities are tension-filled and quite ungratifying. To make matters worse, the couple drives to the estate of Reuben’s (Devon Terrell) deceased mother to attend a pre-wedding party with other friends since Reuben is getting married to their college friend in a few days.
They get together with their old college mates -oov including the rebellious and stoner Brooke (Reina Hardesty), the Pakistan origin party animal Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood), the meditation lover Maya who is a hippie by heart (Nina Bloomgarden) and social media influencer Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey), who is the one Cyrus has a crush on and Shelby cannot stand. Their mutual friend, who is rather a sore subject to them because of how they facilitated his getting kicked out of college, seems to have disappointed them by not making an appearance, but suddenly appears at the back window with a black briefcase in hand.
What was in the suitcase which was contained in his field which is high technology was that it was a machine that he recommends they use for a game. After attaching electrodes to the temples of every individual present in the room, one flip of a switch is all it takes to alternate the position of all present.
The game is seeking out who has taken possession of whose body, and whom-s body every time during the game that’s how the crew uses every tripped out version of Mafia (also known as Werewolf) for coming through on their desired, envies and vendettas.
Within the telling, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to argue how hard any viewer in this world, does not appreciate the obvious shade and tease at the earlier mention film “Bodies Bodies Bodies.” The chateau beauty, creepy middleman position of one of the friends’ and a twisted up classic Mafia game, beats any such a movie reproduction history. The above collections of features are even resembling in satire of the groups of friends, but where the first makes fun of Generation Z, ‘It’s What’s Inside’ is more aimed at the adult millennial audience addressing the narrations of the life relations and self-filling of an individual.
With the horror genre, it actually made the “It’s What’s Inside’ which is funny but with a touch of horror. As her body jumps from one person to the other and while characters search for what is it to be anonymous or to have one’s jealousy directed towards objects in specific, Jardin till now very lightly grazes the terrifying and the existential potential of his style of the film. Given such a depth of the idea, what would be needed was a manipulative narrative weapon to drive the tension and the excitement to a blood-thirsty degree. Instead, ‘It’s What’s Inside’ is very non sacrificing.
What does however is funny is Jardin, who at least manages to pen it in a funny way.
The film’s characters are fun to both laugh at (and with) because it’s always fun to see how different character traits will clash with one another. And although the characters broadly occupied the same archetypal roles, they were stereotypes we have come to know and see in some real life individuals. The film paints the anxiety that comes with trying to recall a past group of friends most of us have had in the past quite well. Yes, the happiness of the cherished moments returns, but so do the fights and band aids of scars that have ceased to be effective. After college, when life takes its due course, the people who are now ‘us’ without the “school” context and identity has changed so much that even the common thread which used to bind them together can be hard to find. And this I think is what makes this film interesting, the swathes of teenage to early twenty emotions that within a millisecond turn into fury upon seeing someone who knows how you used to be and this film brings that out in its plot very well.
Jardin’s inspiration seems to come from a dizzying number of influences, and his treatment features dank split screens and glowing neon as if these elements are addressing branding. Such elements are completed by an amusing flashback montage flooding with a rotating photo collage creating a sense of nostalgia, which is going quite well with the overall feel of the movie where there is laughing and looking back at ‘the times that were.’
When different characters inhabit the same bodies, they are likely to have imaginative and varied performances as different actors swap different characters. Thompson is definitely a peculiar and completely over the top character actor, who at this moment appears as his true character, Forbes, but his seem so exaggerated they come off cleverly self aware. Since he is shown at the beginning of the film, he is the one who establishes the mood, which is important because his character is the one who initiates the action of the movie.
An ensemble cast perhaps comes together to ensure that Jardin’s script is presented with humour, all except Morosini and Debnam Carey who steal the show. Debnam Carey’s transitions from an emotionally empty comic bad vanity to one that is extremely vulnerable and emotionally still rich with subtlety, who has one of the most emotionally jarring moments in the latter third of the movie and she completely quiets the audience with her pain only in a comedy.
In the last act, it is quite funny as well because of Morosini’s obnoxiousness which went through an ambiguity and it is he who maintains the tempo when the story begins to slow down as it nears its close.
Unfortunately, the last installment of the film does not sit well with the rest of this piece in emotional credibility and tone, appearing to be not entirely deserved, and it paces like a complete halt in comparison to what Jardin had been building. “It’s What’s Inside” is an amusing excursion into the relations of a circle of friends and the works of its parts, even though it disserves its prospects.
Also, Watch On Putlocker.