October is upon us, which means spooky season is finally here. During the fall season, I love to grab my pumpkin spice latte, light a nice apple cinnamon candle, and find a good horror or thriller to watch. I particularly like psychological thrillers, aside from classics. My go-to’s are “Bride of Chucky,” “Donnie Darko,” “Nightmare on Elm Street 4” and, for a good laugh, “Tusk.”
Netflix has just dropped a new one this year, “It’s What’s Inside.” A psychological thriller about a classic board game, this movie follows a group of people meeting up for a friend’s pre-wedding party. There, they reminisce about the good old days and explain they all had been missing a particular friend.
The driving part of the story is they all last heard from their friend, Forbes, when he went to California to become a tech guy. Using cheesy yet beautiful shots, lighting and color grading works with the quirkiness of this dark comedy.
One of the characters, Brooke, is an artist. In one of my favorite scenes, she shows her friends her art inspired by the RGB color model, so different things pop up under different lenses. I noticed the entire movie, for the most part, is RGB, and it is super cool. The original soundtrack is so fulfilling as well. You do not expect this to be a cinematic masterpiece, but it is tasteful. The set alone occasionally took my breath away.
Forbes, who nobody in the movie has heard from in eight years shows up with this game he had created. Much like Son of Sam, Mafia or One Night Ultimate Werewolf, the premise is you all get hooked up to a machine and can change bodies. You take a polaroid of yourself, and whenever you have guessed correctly or you have guessed someone incorrectly, you pin the polaroid of who you are on your person.
This movie, for me, was 8.5/10. I have seen online that many either like it or hate it. I can see why, but one of the beautiful things in this movie was David Thompson’s performance. He plays Forbes and embodies truthfully a completely different person each time he needs to. You can feel it when he is not himself. He is such a great actor.
For the suspense level, I give it about a seven. It had me on the edge of my seat, but not too bad that I wanted to look away. There is no gore in this movie or slashing, so if that is your thing this is not the movie for you. However, this movie had my jaw on the floor with all its twists.
I did find the ending to be crowd-pleasing, but I liked knowing rather than being left guessing. I recommend this movie, especially if you are having a movie night with your friends or partner. You stayed glued to the screen. So grab your loved ones, make some popcorn balls and get comfy. This movie is a trip.
