The Big Picture

It’s What’s Inside fails to consistently deliver fun in what should be a horror romp. The film has visual panache but repeatedly reveals the answers to all its mysteries, instead of creating tension by keeping the audience in the dark. The ending of It’s What’s Inside is obvious and ties up all loose ends, leaving no room for lingering ambiguity or retroactive interest.

When it was announced that the streaming behemoth Netflix was spending quite a pretty penny — $17 million, to be precise — on writer-director Greg Jardin’shorror It’s What’s Inside following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, it immediately created a sense of buzz around the film. It also felt like a flashback to Apple’s high spending on the 2021 film (and eventual Oscar winner) CODA, while far below that price tag. It’s What’s Inside isn’t going to win any awards of that nature as it’s more of a genre romp than anything serious — but while not all films need to be serious, they should at least be consistently fun. This, despite all that it has going on, frequently gets stuck spinning its wheels. Where other films at the festival proved to be bold new visions of horror, this supposed breakout strains to be edgy while remaining painfully inert. It initially makes for a sporadically fun game to play before revealing how little it has on its mind.

It’s What’s Inside A pre-wedding party descends into an existential nightmare when an estranged friend shows up with a mysterious suitcase. Release Date January 19, 2024 Director Greg Jardin Runtime 103 minutes Writers Greg Jardin

What Is ‘It’s What’s Inside’ About?

The film begins with Shelby, played by Brittany O’Grady of The White Lotus, who is trying to spice up her sex life with her dull boyfriend Cyrus (James Morosini) by wearing a wig as part of a roleplay they had previously discussed. This scenario quickly goes awry when she instead walks in on him watching porn and grows frustrated with how little effort he is putting in. The couple has to put this dilemma aside to attend the wedding of their friend Reuben (Devon Terrell), who has invited them as well as the rest of their old college buddies Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood), Brooke (Reina Hardesty), and Maya (Nina Bloomgarden) for a night of partying before getting hitched.

The group all have their respective broad backgrounds, but the main emphasis of tension is that Nikki is an influencer with a massive following that will soon become a sticking point with Shelby — who, already jealous of her fame, seemingly wants to be her. She and everyone else will get their chance to do so with the late arrival of Forbes (David Thompson), who nobody was sure would show up. Not only does he do so, but he brings along a game where it quickly becomes clear not all the participants are interested in simply playing around.

That’s about where any discussion of what happens should stop, as the premise of the film lives and dies based on its surprises. It’s What’s Inside still doesn’t end up being particularly inventive in how it establishes its rules and subsequent reveals, though there won’t be any tipping-off about what ends up playing out here. What can be said is that the group soon finds themselves in quite a serious predicament. Initially, there is one early scene where a moment of dishonesty invites the potential for a much more tense psychological thriller where the audience is kept in the dark about what’s happening. This is regrettably short-lived, as the film insists on revealing mysteries that would be better of kept a secret. It does so via some more clever visual clues and aspects of the cast’s performance before, frustratingly, always just bluntly and ineptly telling you every answer. This often takes the form of a red light that essentially lets us see the truth, which, while occasionally funny, demonstrates a fundamental lack of trust in the audience.

Though other aspects of the film are intriguingly disorienting, relying on a fragmented and flashy sense of visual style to keep us on our toes, It’s What’s Inside always ends up stepping back to spell everything out. Though much lower in budget and more humble in its aspirations, there are moments where it almost seems like we could be diving into something like 2013’s sci-fi thriller Coherence, where a group of people in a house soon realizes that not everyone is who they say they are. Instead, It’s What’s Inside lacks the confidence or tact to create the mindbender it seems to want to be. Some of the more comedic beats work well enough, as they’re all based more on the emotional insecurities of the characters, as opposed to, again, where we pretty much always know everything there is to know. It’s a shame given that the cast is doing a solid job of capturing the various nuances necessary to sell some of what have been complex mysteries. The trouble is all their work amounts to very little, especially when the ending manages to spell everything out even further.

‘It’s What’s Inside’s Ending Is as Obvious as Everything That Precedes It

Without giving away anything or even approaching an allusion to what takes place in the conclusion, we are given a large dump of information that attempts to complicate everything we’ve already been watching. Had this been done more subtly or with more ambiguity, maybe it could have made the movie more retroactively interesting. Instead, It’s What Inside ties up any remaining loose ends so that there’s never any doubt that we come away knowing everything. It makes for a film that, on the surface, has a lot going for it but little else underneath the hood. There is a panache to the presentation, but it’s what’s inside this film that leaves much to be desired after all the potential it had for something more.

It’s What’s Inside REVIEWIt’s What’s Inside has visual style and a strong cast though soon reveals itself to be empty on the inside. ProsThere are moments of clever establishing through more subtle visual cues. The cast all do a great job in establishing who they are via the small details of their performances. ConsThe film is painfully obvious, demonstrating a fundamental lack of trust in its audience. The ending spells everything out rather than leaving a lingering sense of ambiguity or a greater sense of retroactive interest.

It’s What’s Inside had its World Premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.