IT LIVES INSIDE

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

The film opens in a darkened house with the lights flickering, where a struggle can be heard taking place. After much commotion, a young man collapses on the floor dead. Out of his hands rolls a jar filled with black dust.

Not far from the house lives Samidha, who prefers to go by “Sam” (Megan Suri). She lives with her parents Poorna (Neeru Bajwa) and Inesh (Vik Sahay), but is disconnected from her Indian heritage, which upsets Poorna. She tries to remind Samidha that she needs to help her make food for an upcoming puja celebration.

At school, Samidha hangs out with her friend and goes to class, where she is close to her teacher, Joyce (Betty Gabriel). She has a crush on her classmate, Russ (Gage Marsh). Another girl, Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), arrives to class late, with her appearance looking like she hasn’t slept in days. Samidha and Tamira used to be best friends until they fell out and split up. Tamira is also carrying the black jar from the young man’s house. Joyce suggests to Samidha that she ought to check on Tamira, but Samidha doesn’t think it’s her business. Tamira is seen walking home with a dead animal in her backpack and places part of its carcass inside the jar to feed whatever is inside.

The next day, Tamira approaches Samidha in the locker room with the jar and tells her that it is related to stories that they used to hear as children. She claims to have found it from the abandoned house after saying it was calling to her. Samidha dismisses her as just being weird and hits the jar out of Tamira’s hands, causing it to fall and shatter. Tamira leaves in a panic, dropping a little book with the initials “KC” written on it. Samidha follows her and tries to return the book, but Tamira starts screaming when she thinks she sees something behind Samidha. She runs to get help, but something begins pulling on Tamira’s hair and takes her before Samidha can return with Joyce.

A search begins for Tamira, with her mother filing a missing person’s report. Elsewhere, Tamira is being kept prisoner in an unknown location, and the entity from the jar appears to be feeding off of her arm.

Samidha later attends the puja, where the guests say a prayer for Tamira. She overhears another woman mentioning the Choudhary family, so Samidha asks Inesh about them. He tells his daughter that the family appeared to be broken and running from something, while the elder son Karan fell victim to an unknown cause after he was said to have a promising future. Feeling uncomfortable, Samidha starts to change her clothes and leave the puja. While Poorna protests, Inesh allows her to leave.

Samidha rides her bike to the school and looks through the book that Tamira had, which belonged to Karan. There are numerous writings that have been smudged from water, along with horrifying ghostly images. She later joins Russ at a beach party at night with other classmates. They dance for a bit until it starts to rain, and Russ offers to give Samidha a ride. She shows him Karan’s book and expresses concerns over what she found.

Russ drives Samidha to the Choudhary house (where the jar was found by Tamira). They come across drawings on the walls similar to what Samidha found in Karan’s book, including an image of an entity either coming out of or going inside a young man. Samidha and Russ flee when they hear police sirens. At night, Samidha appears to have a nightmare where she is haunted by the entity.

The next day, Poorna scolds Samidha for bailing on the puja, to which Samidha responds by snapping at her mom. She then goes to meet with Russ by a swing set and tells her that she used to be best friends with Tamira until they got to high school, and how she also felt like people looked at her weird after the incident with Karan implicitly due to them both being Indian. After a moment, Russ asks if he can kiss Samidha, and she lets him. She then hears a voice from the house nearby calling her name. The entity then attacks Russ, tangling the chains of the swings around him before something violently bites into him and thrashes him around until he is dead. After the police come, Samidha returns home and hears her parents arguing about her. She goes to bed and sees a vision of Tamira trapped in her current state.

Poorna and Inesh try to get Samidha to talk to them, but she cannot bring herself to tell them what is going on. At school, Joyce talks to Samidha after noticing her looking disheveled, but Samidha screams after feeling the entity’s presence around her. Joyce agrees to help her investigate, and after studying the drawing that Samidha found, Joyce tells her that the demon is called a Pishach, which feeds off negative energy and consumes flesh. The jar had been containing it until Samidha broke it.

Samidha finally approaches Poorna and asks her about the Pishach. Poorna restates that it feeds off negative energy, specifically by alienating its victim from everyone around them until they are alone and vulnerable. Poorna then tells Samidha that they need to summon the Pishach by making an offering. While this happens, Joyce wanders the school alone until the Pishach starts to haunt and terrorize her. She hides in the locker room but is attacked by the unseen entity.

Samidha and Poorna make food and don traditional attire as they try to summon the Pishach. Samidha gets a voicemail from Joyce, panicking while the Pishach went after her. When Inesh returns home, the Pishach attacks and wounds him as well. The demon rejects the family’s offering and also strikes Poorna. Samidha then realizes she knows where to find Tamira and put an end to this.

Samidha travels to the Choudhary house where Tamira is being kept prisoner. She manages to find Tamira alive, but the Pishach continues to attack them until Samidha remembers Karan’s painting and how Joyce said the Pishach merely needs a vessel to be kept away. Samidha decides that SHE must become the vessel and allows the Pishach to enter and inhabit her body.

One year later, Samidha is shown having dinner with her parents (both alive), plus Tamira and Joyce (also alive). They know that the Pishach is in her now, but she has managed to keep the demon under control. Samidha and Tamira have also continued to be friends. However, the film closes with a pained and tearful look on Samidha’s face as the Pishach lives within her now.

Samidha/"Sam" is an Indian teenager who has started to reject her family's customs. She runs into her former friend Tamira, who possesses a black jar containing a terrifying entity. Samidha breaks the jar and releases the demon known as the Pishach, which feeds off negative energy and feeds off Tamira's body while keeping her prisoner.

Samidha realizes that the demon was connected to the death of the local Choudhary family a year earlier, and she finds notes and drawings left by their son Karan, who originally trapped the Pishach. Samidha's friend Russ is killed by the Pishach after trying to help her, and it also attacks her father Inesh and teacher Joyce. While Samidha and her mother Poorna try to send it away, Samidha realizes what she has to do.

Samidha goes to the Choudhary house where she finds Tamira alive, and in order to stop the Pishach, she allows herself to become a vessel for the demon to stay. One year later, both Inesh and Joyce survived their attacks, and Samidha and Tamira have become friends again, though it is clear that Samidha's life will never be the same.