Spoiler Alert! There are some major spoilers for It’s What’s Inside below. If you haven’t watched the 2024 Netflix movie, exercise caution!
It’s What’s Inside is easily one of the best and most inventive releases on the 2024 movie schedule, even if Netflix released Greg Jardin’s body-swap sci-fi thriller like they want to treat it like a dirty little secret. I recently watched the movie and was shocked to find out that not only wasn't there much fanfare ahead of its release, but no one seems to be talking about it. Like at all.
The movie centers around a group of friends who get together for a pre-wedding party/reunion (#reuphia) where they play a wild party game that involves switching bodies with the help of a mysterious device. A cool concept and spin on the body-swap genre, a stellar cast, and a superb execution make It’s What’s Inside a unique and transfixing experience. But still, no one is really talking about one of the best Netflix movies, and it's quite baffling...
I Didn't Know Anything About It's What's Inside Until My Wife Sent Me A TikTok
With me working for an entertainment news site and all, it’s usually me mentioning some random movie to my wife and pestering her about it until she relents and we watch something she knows nothing about. But it was a completely different story with It’s What’s Inside, as I knew nothing about it until she sent me a TikTok about it being one of the wildest horror movies on Netflix.
Little did I know that some random movie page on TikTok would soon be introducing me to one of the most thrilling, engaging, and unforgettable cinematic experiences in quite some time. But it does bring up a problem I have with the rollout, as there’s been no buzz about what is easily one of the best under-the-radar releases of the year.
The Movie Shows Just How Dark A Body-Swap Story Can Get
Like pretty much every other body-swap movie, It’s What’s Inside has a lot of fun with the concept, at least initially. When the core group of friends use the mysterious device to switch places with one another and play a game where they try to figure out each other’s true identities, they (for the most part) marvel at the experience. But then things take a turn for the worse. Much, much worse. And I loved it.
Instead of having a situation where someone gets trapped in somebody else’s body (though that does happen), the movie takes a turn in which two of the friends die in a tragic accident while exploring the new bodies. I found this situation quite fascinating, as your mind and soul can’t simply transfer back to your very dead (like gruesomely dead) body. We’re well beyond the point of no return at this point and there’s no going back from this new reality.
And though the movie does sort of fall back into the tropes of the genre in its final minutes, this deviation from the path and incredibly bleak situation presented when the game goes horribly wrong was so much fun to watch unfold.
I Didn't Find Any Of The Characters Likable, But I Think That's The Point
It’s rare to find a movie where not a single character is redeemable or likable, but It’s What’s Inside does just that. In fact, I think that was Greg Jardin’s intention when crafting these self-obsessed, tone-deaf, shallow, and petty “friends” who seem to only bond over traumatic events like the death of a parent, a best friend getting expelled from college, and other similar episodes. And guess what, I absolutely love this aspect.
Sure, you won’t find characters with great arcs where they go through a radical change (at least not mentally) in It’s What’s Inside, but it honestly works in a movie like this. I didn’t sympathize with any of the characters (well, maybe besides David W. Thompson’s Forbes), but the rest of the bunch pretty much brought everything upon themselves one way or another.
Whether it’s James Morosini’s Cyrus and his failure to communicate and creepy ways of playing the game, Brittany O’Grady’s Shelby with her desire to constantly please while also losing touch with herself, or Alycia Debnam-Carey’s social media influencer Nikki and her obsession with online fame, everyone in the movie has some major flaws that they don’t necessarily work through. And if they do, it’s not by choice.
But we don’t have to like characters to like a movie, and that’s very much the case with It’s What’s Inside and its terrible group of “friends.”
Writer/Director Greg Jardin Kept The Unique Premise From Getting Too Confusing Through Clever Cinematography
Though there are some issues with the It’s What’s Inside ending that don’t really make a whole lot of sense when you really start to think about them, director Greg Jardin does a fantastic job of keeping the unique premies from getting too confusing.
Early on in the movie, Brooke (Reina Hardesty) shows off some of her new art that looks completely different when looked at through different color lenses. Later on, when everyone has switched bodies, Jardin uses this technique to let the viewer know who’s who, who’s telling the truth, and who’s lying to their “friends” about what’s going on. This clever technique prevents you from going back and forth trying so hard to figure out the true identities that you lose track of the movie. The cinematography, handled by Kevin Fletcher, also elevates these scenes with some cool and flashy 360-degree shots that help you keep track of all the characters in some of the more hectic and confusing scenes.
This Movie Would Have Been Promoted Like Crazy If Blumhouse Or A24 Were Behind it
I think there’s not a lot of buzz surrounding It’s What’s Inside simply because Netflix isn’t promoting it as much as studios like Blumhouse and A24 would if they released the clever and unique movie.
This thriller has a lot in common with Talk to Me, one of the best A24 horror films, in the sense that both center on parties that are brought to a screeching halt when partygoers don’t respect the power of something they don’t understand. That movie, which ended up making north of $92 million, per Box Office Mojo, had a ton of buzz and word of mouth surrounding its release, and I think this could have been the case for this Netflix film.
The same goes for great Blumhouse horror movies like Get Out, M3GAN, and Freaky (another body-swap horror movie), which all found audiences and a lot of buzz in the past few years. If there had been more promotion of the movie, Netflix could have had a massive hit on its hands.
It’s What’s Inside is currently streaming for anyone with a Netflix subscription. If you’re looking for more horror, check out our breakdown of all the upcoming horror movies coming to theaters and some of the best streaming services.
