Precarious game nights have become common fodder for horror movie fun, with “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and “Talk To Me” being two of the genre’s biggest hits so far this decade. Writer-director Greg Jardin delves into this format in his first feature film, “It’s What’s Inside,” now on Netflix.
Cyrus (James Morosini) and Shelby (Brittany O’Grady) are having relationship problems. They’ve been together for almost a decade, and without a ring or sex, their daily interactions are strained and unsatisfying. To make matters worse, with their college friend Reuben’s (Devon Terrell) wedding days away, they head to their late mother’s estate, where they’ll meet up with their old group of friends for a pre-wedding party.
They meet the other members of their college clique: fashion-forward stoner Brooke (Reina Hardesty), party animal Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood), newly Buddhist spiritual hippie Maya (Nina Bloomgarden), and influencer Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey). , who is the object of Cyrus’ latent desire and Shelby’s visceral envy. As the group wonders if their other friend Forbes (David Thompson), with whom they have a dangerous relationship due to his influence in their expulsion from college, will show up, he appears in the back window, with a mysterious briefcase in his hand.
Working in the field of high technology, the suitcase contains a machine that he proposes to use for a game. By attaching electrodes to the temples of everyone in the room, with the flip of a switch, everyone changes bodies. The game is to discover who now owns whose body. He is a crazy version of the Mafia (also known as Werewolf) that the team abuses to live out their desires, envies and revenge.
Narratively, it’s quite difficult not to notice the marked similarities with the aforementioned “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies.” From the luxurious estate to the somewhat estranged friend to the remixed game of Mafia, it’s almost too close for comfort. Even the satire on friend groups is similar, although while the former pokes fun at Generation Z, “It’s What’s Inside” targets an older, more millennial audience through its talk about long-term relationships and fulfillment. staff.
“It’s What’s Inside” is a comedy with a gentle hint of horror elements. As bodies are swapped and characters explore what they can do anonymously or find new confidence in the objects of their envy, Jardin only scratches the surface of his format’s existential, horrifying capacity. Since the film’s concept allows for so much play, it could have been armed with quick and flexible narrative weaponry to raise the stakes and fun to a bloody, lustful level. Instead, “It’s What’s Inside” opts for security.
What does work is Jardin’s humorous pen. It’s fun to laugh at (and with) the film’s cast of characters, as the situational comedy of their mix of personalities leaves plenty of room for showdowns. Although the characters fit archetypal roles, they are stereotypes with which we can identify and remember people from our own lives. The film excellently captures the uneasy feeling that comes with the reunion of an old group of friends. All the joy of memories returns, but with it is dragged the memory of disagreements and plasters of wounds that no longer stick to the skin. When college ends and life moves on, the people we move away from the context and identity of the school can be so divergent that it is difficult to find the dividing line that once existed. Most potent are the whispers of emotions from the late-teen and early-20s versions of ourselves that grow into a roar in the presence of those who knew us, and “It’s What’s Inside” places this at the forefront of its narrative. .
Jardin employs a striking style in his cinema, using split screens and vivid neon colors as identification tools. These elements, along with a clever flashback sequence in the form of constantly changing photographs, add to the nostalgia that keeps the film’s existential implications in orbit while also perfectly describing what it feels like to be on a shoot. of drunken gossip about times past.
With different personalities switching into the same bodies, there is great opportunity for unique and diverse performances from the actors as they switch characters. Thompson, when playing his real character, Forbes, has intentionally and cartoonishly strange behavior, but in a way that makes him feel self-aware. Through his early introduction into the film, he is the one who sets the tone just as his character sets the events of the film in motion.
Mainly, the cast prioritizes keeping Jardin’s script light, but Morosini and Debnam-Carey are the standouts. Debnam-Carey goes from a hollow comic conceit to a deeply emotional and insecure place with nuances, with a scene in the final third that surprises you with emotion in what has mostly been a comedic narrative journey. Morosini’s ambivalence-turned-obnoxiousness also provides plenty of humor in the final act, and he’s the one who keeps the energy going as the story takes a slower turn toward its conclusion.
Unfortunately, the film’s ending feels displaced in tone and emotional credibility, it doesn’t feel entirely earned, and its pacing feels like a dead stop compared to what Jardin had previously established. “It’s What’s Inside” is a fun journey through the dynamics of a group of friends and the interiorities of its members, even as it sanitizes their potential.
Now on Netflix.