Although she had a prominent role in seasons 2 and 3 of the Netflix series Never Have I Ever, Megan Suri’s character Aneesa didn’t have much of a presence in the show’s fourth and final season. But Suri does have the lead role in the upcoming supernatural horror film It Lives Inside – and today, the unveiling of a poster for the film has revealed that it has a September 22 theatrical release date! The poster can be seen at the bottom of this article.
Directed by Bishal Dutta, who crafted the screenplay with Ashish Mehta, It Lives Inside tells the following story: Sam is desperate to fit in at school, rejecting her Indian culture and family to be like everyone else. Whena mythological demonic spirit latches onto her former best friend, she must come to terms with herheritage in order to defeat it.
Suri is joined in the cast by Neeru Bajwa (Criminal), Mohana Krishnan (I Am Frankie), Vik Sahay (Chuck), Gage Marsh (Big Sky), Beatrice Kitsos (Child’s Play remake), and Betty Gabriel (Get Out).
The film was produced by Raymond Mansfield and Sean McKittrick.
Dutta provided the following statement: “It Lives Inside initially emerged as an image: a kid on a bike, riding through Rockwellian suburbs. It’s right out of an early Amblin film. But what if this kid was escaping a puja, her school outfit wrapped in an ornated upatta? For me, that image spoke to the duality I felt growing up as a first-generation immigrant in America.’Where do I belong? Which country is my home? Which world is ultimately mine?’
After I moved to North America from India at the age of four, a lot of my social education came from watching American horror films. I always wondered, what were families like mine doing while Bruce the shark tore through Amity’s waters, while Freddy Krueger slashed teenagers in the dreamscape, and while Jack Torrance chased his son through the maze-like halls of the Overlook? As it developed, It Lives Inside formed its own dual identity much like mine. On one hand, it is a love letter to the community and culture that raised me while on the other, it is a visceral experience that is designed to instill the same raw terror in its viewers that my favorite horror films instilled in me.
I was lucky enough to collaborate with the producers at QC Entertainment from an early stage of the film. Ray and Sean’s expertise in elevating socially-charged dramas to thoughtful, incisive mass entertainment in films like Get Out and BlacKKKlansman made them perfect creative partners from development to post-production. As the story developed, the ideas and emotions at its core only crystallized further and were never diluted or dulled down. My lucky streak extended when I got the opportunity to work with some of my dearest collaborators in bringing this movie to life, from my long-time director of photography, Matthew Lynn, and composer, Wesley Hughes, to Jameson Parker, our executive producer, Jack Price, our editor, and Nolan McNaughton, our sound designer.
It Lives Inside is not autobiographical but draws on real people that I have known and loved. In casting characters so close to my heart, I was awarded miracle after miracle, beginning with Megan Suri. She brings Samidha to life in a way that entirely transforms the words on the page. Betty Gabriel, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishna, Vik Sahay and Gage Marsh all bring so much delicate humanity to the loved ones that fill out Samidha’s world. When I see them all on screen, they don’t feel like characters that I wrote anymore, but rather richly layered human beings that I recognize and cherish in my own life. I believe in horror cinema. It’s the greatest genre our art form has to offer, affording artists opportunities to tell challenging, emotionally rich stories within a harrowing, affective experience. In offering It Lives Inside to the canon, I hope to give you a window into the lives of people I care deeply about… and to make you wonder if someone – or something – really is hiding in the dark, waiting to pop out of your dark, empty closet when the lights are out.“
Will you be watching It Lives Inside this September? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and while you’re scrolling down, check out the new poster: