Director Bishal Dutta makes an auspicious feature film debut with his effective folk horror shocker, "It Lives Inside." After an eerie prologue, the film introduces Samidha, Americanized as "Sam" ("Never Have I Ever" actress Megan Suri), a teenager who is uninterested in helping her mother, Poorna (Neeru Bajwa) prepare for an upcoming Puja ceremony to celebrate the mythological god Durga defeating a demon.
Sam is a good student, and her teacher Joyce (Betty Gabriel) asks her about Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), her classmate who has become withdrawn of late, clutching a glass jar and acting strangely. When Tamira explains to Sam that the jar contains a monster — later explained to be the Pishach, "a flesh-eating devourer of souls" — Sam causes the vessel to break, and the demon is unleashed.
