While Hollywood has seen a rash of multi-million dollar misses this year, just as many thrilling, effective movies have flown under the radar. The latest is Netflix’s new sci-fi thriller, It’s What’s Inside, which just hit the streaming service last week.
It’s What’s Inside is the feature film debut of writer and director Greg Jardin, who premiered the movie at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in January. It follows a group of friends who meet up for a house party the night before a wedding. Forbes (David W. Thompson) brings a suitcase to the party that contains a device which allows them all to swap bodies. He suggests they play a game where they try to figure out who has taken over each body.
You’re not going to believe this, but the game doesn’t quite go according to plan:
The cast is a laundry list of young, up-and-coming stars, like Brittany O’Grady, James Morosini, Gavin Leatherwood, Nina Bloomgarden, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Reina Hardesty, Devon Terrell, David W. Thompson, and Madison Davenport.
Thus far, reviews have been positive: 81% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.5/10 on IMDb. Variety’s Guy Lodge called it “a pretty effective genre calling-card: gleamingly shot and spikily cut, brashly acted by actors accepting of their role as pretty pawns in an elaborate narrative game of strategy,” while AV Club adds that “there are plenty of laughs to be had here.”
As of Monday, October 7, the movie has snuck its way up to #7 on Netflix’s top 10 movies chart. Here’s hoping it can build up some buzz in the coming days, because we need far more movies like this and fewer stinkers like Joker: Folie à Deux.
