SPOOPYWEEN DAY 25 IT LIVES INSIDE!!!!!!

Day 25

It Lives Inside

We need a good haunting about this time. Not of the spirit kind, but of the damn demon kind. There aren’t that many good ghost movies out and any time you ask for one, some jackhole ends up mentioning the Conjuring or Paranormal Activities. It’s sad these are now our go to examples. But I digress.

This is looking to be something interesting.

Another one I have never heard of, and no nothing about. Aside we got demons. It looks fun, it should be fun, and hell when aren’t demons fun! When they’re after you….that’s when.

So without further much ado about demons, lets get it on! Tm

The movie

You know only good things await you when you open your film showing what remains of an attempted assault on a demon, and bodies are still turning crispy critter. AND you immediately transition to Indian cooking.

Seriously I could smell the spice through the screen and now I’m starving for goodness I will never know. I also wish I could say I don’t know the pains of having to shave my arm hair but. I have a few tattoos that prove I do, and it does suck. All of these things are connected and kick things off, all accompanied by one hell of a nice atmospheric score.

What we have here, is a story about a young Indian girl, who is trying to, out grow her roots, and branch off into her own. Her name is Samidha, but she goes by Sam. She isn’t ashamed of her heritage. She just. It feels. Wants to be like everyone else.

While her mother is trying to keep with tradition and share with her daughter, create memories that she grew up with enjoying later in life, wanting her daughter to be able to have the same. But Sam is a teenager and the cellphone age is a beast all its own that is hard to battle without proper management.

We only see her family for a few moments, but I love them. It’s a subtle setup with nothing really pushing itself to stand out. Her father is a kind caring man who supports his daughter, loves his wife and is doing his best. Her mom is loving but strict and worries for her daughter. While Sam is. Trying to find her own voice.

It may not be an original story concept, but it’s all in the presentation and how you tell it. And I gotta say I am enjoying it.

The backdrop here for her and her family, is the upcoming celebration of Durga Puja. Which is celebrated in a lot of different ways throughout Indian culture. It’s an annual Hindu festival celebrating the goddess Durga, and her victory over Mahishasura.

The festival last 10 days, the last 5 of which are considered the most important. Pujas are performed. Food is devoured, Delicious amazing food. Gifts given and…so back to the movie.

We have two friends at the core of this movie, that are opposite sides of one another. While Sam is adjusting to high school and doing her best to step away from, who she is. She still can’t fully escape it with her cool kid friends. Who make it a bit clear they both don’t fully understand her, which she deals with when realizing what seems normal to her is nearly alien to others, and others that make her feel at times like a cool accessory. Mostly in the form of having a friend who thinks its cool that her new friend speaks other languages, so anything she says is going to be amazing and earn her points elsewhere. It aint fun man. Especially when it sounds like people want you to do tricks for them.

On the other side of this coin. We have a former super bestie of Sam, Tamira.

Tamira is not an outcast, or goth kid. She’s just Tamira. And that’s just enough. Unlike Sam though, she’s stuck with Hindi and the stories they grew up with. She is a bit odd, sure. But that isn’t why Sam pulled from her. Well we don’t actually KNOW, outside of the norms of the transition we make from Jr High through our freshman year in high school. We all go through some form of reinvention and unfortunately we sometimes leave casualties of friendship behind us. So for Sam, that was Tamira. For her to feel accepted by the other kids and get in with the cool kids. She had to ditch her Indian friend. At the time things like that never seem fucked up to us, not till later. But Sam isn’t trying to burn bridges and hide bodies. At least not yet. She just has a fear of ending up like her mother, and not embracing her own sense of freedom and individuality.

While Tamira has average high school issues. She’s not part of the cool kids group, she’s seen as being kind of weird because she’s quiet, and she also is carrying a jar with a demon inside it, while filling her backpack up with bloody chunks of who knows what meat to help feed this demon.

Typical girl shit man. High school am I right?

Well Tamira is having the worst day, week. Life possibly. Even by teenage standards.

I mean you carry a jar around with scripture scrawled into the glass, a demon growling inside, feeding it hunks of bloody meat all the time. Listening to its screams of rage fighting to free itself. Meanwhile you have homework that needs to be completed to receive a full grade or you get marked with an incomplete. Gym class is a nightmare no one cares about, and you haven’t even thought about finals approaching.

So she decides she needs to turn to someone for a bit of life advice. Unfortunately for Sam. It’s gonna be her. Whether she likes it or not.

We learn from Tamira as she corners her former friend in the girls locker room. That she came across this jar in someones home. She found the house in shambles, This jar on the floor and a voice coming from it, calling out to her.

Again, perfectly normal teen behavior. Jars calling out to you isn’t a bad thing. It’s usually queso cheese jars or Nutella. And like in this case, demon jars. It’s easy to confuse them.

So she picked up this jar calling her name, and is now stuck with a demon jar. Which she felt she could contain. Through chanting and mantras, and feeding the beasty. Her unwanted Beasty Besty.

She’s trying to convince Sam to hear her out and understand that what IS in this jar. Which she knows Sam can’t see, but trust her IS there, is part of the stories they grew up with hearing as kids. Stories about jar demons. Which in Hindu and Buddhist stories are Pischchas. They’re….basically little hungry soul devouring darkness beings that enjoy convincing you life sucks, is horrible. Lead you astray and eat your soul. Because it’s what they do. Typically you feed them and do mantra reciting to keep them away, or you know. Put them in jars. Not really jars but ‘vessels’ so yes technically mason jars work.

I would not be surprised if there were demon jars on etsy. Nor would you be surprised. Admit it.

Well Sam is hearing all this, she’s taking it all in, and all she hears is ‘Blah blah crazy bitch, blah blah hindu’ So she is zoned out and flat out tells her friend she’s a psycho bitch. Which. Is a bit harsh. But Tamira is still going to try and get her friend to understand. I mean she’s understandably desperate and well yeah. You try carrying around and feeding a demon in a jar on your own. It’s not like carrying a 5lb bag of flour and calling it a baby. God I wonder if kids even have to do that in school like we did. Man that was dumb, but the girls wanting to get pregnant loved it. I’m not joking. We had girls that guys were warned not to bang because they wanted to get a baby…anyway.

Sam is not having any of this, and she decides the best course of action is tough love. Or the counter spell known as Bitch-Be-Gone.

So she slaps the jar from her friends hand and it shatters across the floor. In the girls locker room. Anyone without shoes, is going to be severely fucked.

But also a cloud of deadly black smoke has escaped the jar and an invisible demon is now on the loose. High School am I right?

So with a demon on the loose. Tamira now literally feeling her life is at an end, and her one former bestest besty friend ever has sentenced her to death. By a soul devouring meat loving demon. I’m thinking Arby’s.

Well Sam isn’t entirely careless. She recognizes what she did was pretty shitty, and she also saw her friend dropped a weird leather bound book. So she uses that as an excuse to take off after her, hand it off, and apologize for what she did and how it made her friend burst into tears.

Which would be touching. If not for the fact Tamira is both:

Crying and hysterical because she feels her life is now over.

And because an invisible demon has just opened a door behind Sam and is dragging Tamira off by her hair to an unseen fate.

We never had problems like this in High school, and I’m kinda glad.

It’s also a bit unfortunate that it takes having your former best friend dragged off screaming by a demon to bring you back into their lives. But it happens.

No one knows where Tamira is. All we have is a leatherbound book with the initials K.C. on it. It’s a good little bit of setup and I’m really curious just what the hell is in this book as it looks incredibly old, but it seems more that way because its handmade. Which holy crap that’s a nice handmade book. But also why. But it’s not my place to ask. I’m still gonna though. What we should be asking now, is where the hell is Tamira.

Apparently she’s resting in a pine box, under the care and hunger of the now free but still invisible demon. Who is keeping a watchful eye on her, as well as giving little attention bites. At least that’s what I call it when my cat randomly bites me when I am laying in bed. Though to be fair her teeth don’t puncture me like this demons does when he bites Tamira.

But now the question is who is truly suffering more? Tamira under the praying eyes of her demon friend as it noms on her? Or Sam, who is knees deep in Puja with her families house over flowing with family and food and music, while trying to hold her shit together understanding what happened to her friend?

OF COURSE TAMIRA HAS IT WORSE! GIRLS GOT A DEMON BITING ON HER!

But Sam DOES have her mother to deal with. Which is on par for her with a demon. Especially when she wants more than anything to be away from this house and off playing demon detective.

Which thanks to her fathers cool understanding. She can do. Even if her mother will absolutely remember this later, noting her daughter better bring back an entire ARMY of demons to make up for this.

Which there just might be, eventually.

For now Sam is in full investigation mode. The book her former best clung to and dropped, belonged to a neighborhood kid that, apparently slowly went cray and didn’t have the best summer time. He was a promising kid with a bright future ahead of him, but something changed drastically and he became withdrawn. Began talking to himself and a jar. Sorta like what happened with Tamira. Minus the crazy. Mostly. A lot.

As sam flips through the book we begin to piece together that this boy indeed came across the not so happy to be found and best left alone demon, Mahishasura. Which we learned he too kept feeding, and as the evil began to overwhelm him, drive chaos into his life and drive him from those he loved. He tried desperately to rid himself of this thing, and thus he decided to trap the demon within a vessel, the jar.

Which sam broke without a care and not realizes she may have just set free a demon to take her friend. Needless to say this ruins her night and plans to have fun with a guy she kinda digs on.

Actually that’s not really accurate. True she IS sad about her friend possibly resting in a demons belly. But she absolutely IS going to go dancing and partying because. Well the guy is hot, she’s into him and I mean come on. She needs to let loose after dealing with demon soul eating.

Fortunately some gods above saw this, decided ‘aw hell no girl’ and made it rain. Literal rain, not stripper rain. So she’s forced to cut back on her boy time, and drags him along with her for investigation time. Which means YES we get to see the house that crazy built. And I believe the insane murder house we illuded to in the beginning where the Jar was found by Tamira.

Yes it is absolutely the house that crazy made. There are drawings all over the walls. Depicting hungry demons, angry pishachi, a selfie of Mahishasura. It wasn’t good man.

What’s worse though. Is the evil is now aware of Sam as well. Which is when we start getting good and creepy.

Not to say the film hasn’t provided that so far. It has. It’s very subtle with its scares and I dig it a lot. Even more it isn’t afraid to let its evil exist just to torture one being.

I loved the fact when Sam confronted Tamira at school to apologize, you saw the door behind her open and close and her hair move with it. The subtle signs that now start appearing that the demon has taken an interest in her as well. She begins seeing glowing gold eyes from dark corners in her room. Hallways and closets. She hears whispers and wakes up in a panic over things she can’t see but hear chasing after her, growling and snarling.

It might feel like a lot of horror hasn’t happened in this movie yet. But it is ramping up and its been there. Just slowly drawing itself out. Taking its time and kudos to them for doing so. Even more so with the invisible attacks. That stuff is on par creepy with stuff from The Entity.

But its about to get a lot more crazy and fun. Well…fun for some.

Sam and her boy are hanging out at the crazy house, because its now the place to be. Apparently. It’s also a good time Sam feels to open up to Russ about her past  with Tamira. As well as why she tries to be, different. How her mom hates her for not being perfect or a good Hindu. How Bill Nye is not even a real scientist but people buy his bullshit because he was a cool childhood memory, so they don’t care about his fake credentials. How COVID is just a stronger strain of the flu and more testing needs to be done on vaccines before releasing them to the public. Which Russ finally decides to stop before she talks about Biden and kisses her.

Surprising Sam and reminding her she has hormones and she wants more of what this guys selling.

But for some odd reason this boy has to prove he’s a bad boy, so he decides a victory joint is needed. He forged the river of kiss and came back with a “Yeah its cool you kissed me sure whatever”, so light’em up if you gottem.

Of course Sam joins in because well, cool kids gonna cool. She can’t hack it though. Especially when homeboy goes in for another smooch and shotguns some smoke down her lungs. So she needs to chill out until her girl erection goes away. She takes off for the inside of crazy house, a bit buzzed and enjoying being alive. Leaving Russ with his own awkward boner, a full joint, enjoying being alive, and also an invisible demon that doesn’t appreciate smooching and drugs.

Yes, unfortunately for Sam, her hot boytoy first High School crush and smooch is a dead man. Not just a dead man. But a body tossed around like your dog playing with its favorite toy kinda dead. Seriously this boy is not gonna be happy if he survives this. But Mahishasura goes for the jugular and our boy is D-E-A-D dead.

Naturally this happens in front of Sam and she is just adding trauma points to her scorecard at this point.

Add to this the fact the town now blames her for the boys murder. Using her feminine wiles to lure him to crazy house, smooch him get him high and then WHAM vagina dentata strikes again. You hate to see it, but it happens. God I hope it never happens. To me. Fuck everyone else.

Well to say Sam is in a little bit of trouble, is an understatement. She is in a whole mess of trouble now. With towns people hating her because, white boy dead, Indian girl alive. And her former bestie whom people saw her fight with before vanishing…well she’s not winning any popularity contest. On top of this, she has an upset mom to answer to for skipping out on the puja the other day. As well as explain things to her father and mother. Which whether she wants to or not. She has to at this point.

Again I give credit and many high praises to the writers and team behind this. Like I said earlier a lot of this is familiar territory yes, but its all in how you tell it, present it. Yes she is beginning to feel shunned. She had a fight with her mom because her mom confronted her about the fact she no longer brings friends over anymore. How she no longer speaks Hindi in the house. Leaving during a sacred celebration like it was an inconvenience for her. She notices her daughter is turning away from who they are, where she came from. She just wants to know why. Only her daughter during that argument decided to get snippy with her mom and again throw at her how she wants to do more with her life than just be like her, a homemaker trapped in traditions.

So you can imagine having to talk to your mom after that, with your dad present is going to be fun.

What I like about the scene is that the father remains true to his character. He isn’t taking anyones side in any of this. He loves his wife and their daughter. He knows something is wrong and that his daughter has found herself in trouble. Now with a boy dead things are getting very serious. So he ask her, in the most nicest way without making her or the situation feel forced. To please tell them what is wrong. She genuinely wants to. She even thinks her mom could help her to figure out just what the hell this thing is and what has happened. No matter how fantastical it might sound. There’s a chance they will believe her.

Only she doesn’t get that chance, because her hurt mother is letting her own emotions fly. Declaring that their daughters silence in her hesitation to tell them, is because she hates them. Hates what she is, and wants nothing to do with them. She doesn’t want their help because they are trash to her.

I mean even the invisible demon is there hearing all of this, and even that dude was like “Damn, bitch is cold”.

So Sam can’t bring herself to tell her parents. Her mother makes it clear, at least to Sam, That she is not wanted there, that they wont listen to her. So she leaves the table as she begins to cry. Instead going to her school. To try and ask a teacher she trust for help. Help with googling the images she found of demons in the house of crazy. You could laugh at this. Sure.

But I had friends who would do this. They had a pc. They had internet connection. They knew of Google, its existence and how to search things. And yet still. They’d call me and tell me to do it for them.

Well her teacher is pretty cool with the kids. So she does this for her. And of course she uncovers that indeed what that demon is in the crazy house pictures. Is after all a Pishacha. An Iron Chef of Pishacha in fact. That loves to tenderize your body before carving up your soul.

Battling demons takes a lot of work. And no matter how hard a studier a teenager can be, no matter the work and time you put into preparing for finals. It’s not going to make you ready for a demon fight.

So its time for Sam to bite the bullet and square up with her mom. The two don’t come to fist. But they come to hugs. Naturally they are just wanting the other to chill the fuck out and have things be cool between them.

It’s honestly one of the more real child and parent encounters I’ve seen. This is done so well and believably it honestly reminded me of my dad and I. How we could snap at one another and hang up the phone, then call back and immediately apologize because we don’t want to be mad at the other. The second to last phone call I had with him was him trying to tell me what to do if/when he passes and he got upset I wasn’t wanting to hear that, or his grumpy advice on how to handle my relationship moving it forward. We hung up pretty upset. But I called him back because I love him, and I didn’t want that being the phone call we leave off on while he’s in recovery. We both apologized to each other, He didn’t want what he felt could be a final call to be one where he’d grumble at me, and I didn’t want to be upset with my dad trying to show me he loves me.

It’s a simple thing that for some reason capturing on film always seems a challenge. It’s also hard to write while giving it believability. So having these two perfectly act it out. By not forcing dialog. Just running into one another, giving knowing looks and the two of them letting their guard down and embracing. It’s good stuff. It says everything without having to say it for everyone. We need more of this.

Well it’s a good thing Sam has an ally at home. Because mama didn’t come to play around. As soon as Sam tells her what has been going on, what Tamira found, what she set free and where things are at. AND that her friend has roughly until THAT evening to be found and saved before she is devoured by Chef Pishacha Ramsey. Mom slips on her apron, knuckledusters and whips out the kitchen aid. She’s cooking up an offering to summon darkness for a whole puja feast of ass whooping.

HOWEVER

Teacher is not out of the woods. As we learned from boy toy Russ, and mom confirmed. Anyone who helps you while the demon is tenderizing your body. Is going to get hurt. Hurt also meaning fucking killed. Apparently. So teacher is about to have an encounter with a Hindu childrens tale demon.

We are now ready to battle.

Seriously if all magic involved cooking tasty as all imaginable spice exploding dishes. I’d be a high level priest with a blessed knife and whisk. I don’t know what food they are making. I know not its name. But I can taste it all through the screen, I need it in my life. This is why Buddhist work to obtain enlightenment. It gets us a good seat at the feast.

So what we get. In our final 20 minutes. Is a dual battle. Think A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors. Where we have the kids fighting Freddy in the dream world, and at the same time we have the two men trying to bury Feeddy’s bones.

On the one hand we have an amazing feast being made in offering, as mother helps prepare daughter for what is to come. And at the High School we have a teacher pissing herself having to face down an invisible unholy beast. Which sometimes can be seen, in glimpses, and oh man is it awesome.

Again. Much love for the restraint they’ve shown in keeping this thing hidden but peaking out. When we do see it. The thing is terrifying. A combination of scales and fur. With huge deadly claws. It looks like a damn demon. Whats more though, is it looks intelligent which makes it even worse. When it isn’t visible. When we just see the impact of its claws and teeth. It’s somehow even more frightening.

The chase through the school with the teacher is pretty damn good. It’s tense, creepy. Appropriately scary and you honestly can’t tell if she will make it out alive or not.

However the mantra chanting and offering have definitely gotten the beast attention. It’s decided to turn its eye from the teacher and is headed now for Sam’s home. Where mom is waiting with a kitchen knife.

Unfortunately kitchen knives are not really that effective against claws of the demon.

Don’t worry though moms okay. She’s just a bit scared and defending her daughter against something she can’t see.

But where, you might wonder. Is dad during all this? Did he get written out? Hell no!

He’s actually coming home earlier to check on his family. How sweet.

Wait, is it really him or is it the DEEEEMON!!!

No it’s really him.

Aaand the demon is behind him sooo. Goodbye dad.

WE DON’T KNOW…that he is dead. Sure he looked super impaled by an unholy soul devouring creature of darkness. But he could still make it. Possibly.

Possibly.

Or he’s super dead too. The beast sees the offering the ladies made him. He examines this clinically. The smell and flavor is there for an offering. Good presentation. Really love the serving dishes too. BUT NO MEAT?!

SEND IT BACK!

The beast flips the table, disregarding their offering, slaps the mom and leaves without paying his bill. Leaving Sam to chase after him and try to get reimbursed for the feast. But before she goes. She remembers Tamira is going to die tonight, so she should really go look for her first. THEN collect the unpaid bill.

At the suggestion of her nearly out of it mom, Sam goes back to the house of crazy. Where believe it or not her friend was the whole time.

Sam and Russ just never looked in the basement. Now, had they gotten past first base and maybe stole second and debated rounding to 3rd? They might’ve thought to peek down in the basement. But here we are. Day 7 of 7 on the death watch clock, and she is here to save her friends tender, well seasoned soul.

This is also, our final fight of the film. Which means. It is time to fully unveil the monster.

Seriously good work on the effects for this practical bad boy.

It looks like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and it carries an authenticity and malevolence that only a demon should ever carry. Seriously this thing is insanely well made and uniquely featured.

What isn’t so insanely well made and uniquely featured. But still interesting seeing it play out. Is the slap fight between Sam and the Pishacha. It’s sorta funny, but its not played out that way. These two are going at it and it’s done with the right kind of tone. Which I know. It sounds funny given it’s a slap fight for the most part. But picture if you will. The fight between Vader and Luke in Empire Strikes Back. Vader could easily had taken out Luke. But he toyed with him. It wasn’t until Jedi that he proved to be an actual challenge.

It's sort of the same. Sam is just…Samidhi. This thing is a fucking flesh devouring soul sucking demon. Of course it’s going to slap her around. This thing could absolutely destroy her. But its weakened. And she’s getting in a few solid hits on it.

But this isn’t a regular wrestling match. This is a casket match. With the Undertaker. So good luck with that.

But Sam has a jar! She’s going to put that prickly hell beast back in a jar and save her bestie. She holds out her awesome mason jar of holding, and begins chanting Sanskrit Om Dyauh Shanti. Which is a mantra for universal peace.

Basically…you are asking for outer peace as well as inner peace. As the two are connected, and obtaining both brings universal peace. Sooo basically its like having mom say “Not only do I want you and your sister to stop fighting and make up, I don’t want to hear anything from either of you except yes mom, thank you mom and clean your rooms”

Only you are reciting this to a demon that wants to eat your soul and tenderize your flesh with a mallet, and you are trying to tell it to calm its otherworldly tits, and you’ll calm your own tits. So you can have calm tits and no anger.

Eitherway she’s chanting away and the demon is not happy.

Well it is happy, as happy as a demon can be at least, once it grips the jar and breaks it in Sam’s hands.

So yes. The one thing that Sam had to help save her ass is destroyed, and we are reminded of a lesson her mother told Sam earlier when preparing the offerings. To fight this thing on your own is a death wish. You can’t fight it alone, you need the power of love. Or Friendship. Because Friendship is magic.

Just as Sam feels all is lost. Her good buddy Tamira hugs her hand and the two begin reciting the mantra together. Weakening the demon, and in that moment. Recalling the drawing on the wall of the demon. She now knows what she must do. The jar is simply a vessel for the demon. But anything can be a vessel.

As can anyone.

So with that. Sam is ready to replay the ending of DIABLO and begins to suck the demon into her body. Every last little morsel of scorched scaley furry pishacha is taken inside and with a belch. Sam has one.

Or. Has she?

She actually has!

Samidha has won the day, and the film is giving us a proper ending. As we flash forward a full year.

Samidha is best friends once again with Tamira. The two are closer than ever, The teacher survived her demon attack and didn’t sue anyone. But more importantly. Her father is alive! The power of cuteness has survived!

The whole family, teacher included are all sitting at the dinner table. Reciting a mantra prayer as they all watch Samidha as she begins what she has spent a year doing. Consuming bloody meat. To feed the demon she now holds within herself, fighting to free itself.

And that’s the ending we get. Her family pray daily for their daughter and her safety. To keep that pashacha at bay. Eating meat on the daily while continuing high school. Her friend loves her for having rescued her and saving their friendship. She’s embraced her family once more and her mother is helping her to learn more about her heritage. But as sweet as it is. And this really is all very sweet. Samidha is still struggling, as we see her do so at the very last frame. To contain the evil within her.

And with that, our edgy teen music plays, and credits roll.

The End

What an excellent film. Genuinely I mean it. No hyperbole, no hate on the Exorcist either. This was a truly enjoyable, well done and written film. Even in the end with the slap fight and man in rubber suit fight. It still pulled off what it promised.

All of it was well executed and the acting, seriously major, major kudos to all involved. Sam’s family were out standing. Even the one off friends of Sam’s in High school were great. They were all believable and for once. FOR ONCE. They weren’t played as over the top stereotypes. No one was. It shouldn’t sound like such a rarity but it really is. Unfortunately.

Some companies get so wrapped up in representation that it comes off like an after school special, and not as an interesting story/family/character. It can really come off as forced or handled in such a way as to almost come off corny. Or you get so an entire speech of backstory explaining a thing or event in someones culture. Here everything is treated respectfully and naturally. The entire Durga Puja even. They don’t expect you to know what it all is. They give you a very basic run down, without cramming volumes of backstory and plot points into it for you. They don’t do a musical number showing you what a puja is.

It's just a day in their life, and the life Sam at first feels she has to deal with, before she accepts.

This is just such a refreshing thing, and the fact her friends aren’t played as raging stereotypes either. I mean the phone recording and even Russ asking her about the Puja? It’s all done in such an innocent way that you see how it makes Sam feel, both times a different reaction to it. But you don’t have these two portrayed as, how to even put it. The annoying ignorant white friend.

Seeing everyone interact with one another the way they do is just. You want to see it more in films. It’s all just really well handled and I loved it, it leant such an authenticity that is still hard to capture in most Hollywood films, especially with High school era films.

There was a good deal of restraint shown in all factors with this movie and it all worked heavily in the films favor. Between the slow and eventual reveal of the demon, the bits and pieces of back story and explanation. How the events played out. I keep saying it but it really had a very natural flow and feel.

Which seeing that alone in a horror movie is. So refreshing. Which this is, though there wasn’t as much ‘direct’ horror as you’d think.

I think what really surprised me the most with this. As I didn’t even think about it or know until I looked it up after? This was a PG13 horror film.

USUALLY. There is a storm about those. Because horror junkies feel you can’t do an actual scary horror unless its rated R. Mostly because that allows for blood, tits, gore, and cussing.

Here these things are limited.

But just like KRAMPUS. This movie never once felt limited. Either by its budget, production, or rating.

Not having gushing fountains of blood each attack was more believable and made the horror more prominent. A good example of this is also The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Which famously used at most a full solo cup of blood. But was regarded as the most brutal violent and bloodiest film.

It’s all in the delivery. That balance.

This film found it and nailed it very well.

The director Bishal Dutta is still a very young director and the guy is just hitting it. He also wrote the script along side Ashish Mehta. Really stand out work between these two. I loved the story, the way the family was handled, and the arch Sam went through in the film. Even her mother(Neeru Bajwa) and their relationship.

It was so nicely done that you knew it was an important part of the film, but it did not over shadow everything else. It had its place in the scheme of things. It played the part it needed to in forming a gap between the pair, showing them trying to find a way to bridge that gap. Then eventually closing that gap and bringing their family together as a full powerful loving unit. The same goes with Sam(Megan Suri) and Tamira(Mohana Krishnan) You got everything you needed to know right up front about their estranged friendship, again without it steeling the show, or being slapped in your face. It was there from the beginning. Told through their acting and looks between each other. Seeing it evolve and them coming together was a huge pay off and something that even though you knew was coming, you still hoped it would, and you actually looked forward to seeing it. That itself says a lot. And seriously much love to her father Inesh(Vik Sahay) loved the actor, and glad to see they’ve managed to appear in several shows and films I’ve seen in the past. I hope for more stand out work for and from them.

The effects in this were minimal but so well done. Honestly one of the best stand out moments for me which even still was just properly under played was the death of Russ. Seeing the actor suspended mid air between two swings on a swing set, being thrashed about like a ragdoll in the maw and hands of the demon. Just so well shot and put together. The quick cuts, and few lingering shots on them. Grisly stuff and well shot. Hard to pin point the effects in the shot because you just. Your focus is right where it needs to be. Not looking for faults, not bored and wondering around the screen, wondering how they did it. You are just in the moment. The creature work was pure art. It was unique and grotesquely beautiful. This film is how you handle your creatures in film. Very old school, less about the look how cool it is and scary, and more about building the scares and making it scary.

Seriously everyone was in top form and this was absolutely a joy to watch. I can’t recommend it enough, and I only hope for its continued success. So far it seems to be falling in the sleeper hit, hidden gem genre, which is both a shame, but a blessing. I really hope, and want more people to discover this film. But I also don’t want Hollywood touching it. This should be something shown to film students.

Honestly I’d pair this film with It Follows on a watch-a-long night with friends. It’s just so good, fun, and a pleasure to watch.

Absolutely check it out. Pick it up on digital or bluray. Support these people please. We need more of this in our lives. I don’t think we need a sequel. But I’d love to see the director find a wider audience and more theaters. Absolutely.

So until tomorrow. Should your friend, or an ex tell you they found a jar that talks to them, possibly has a demon inside. That they feed, and they think whats to kill them and bust out? Just remember what the Lonely Island Boys taught us. “I was walking and this ex of mine showed me a demon jar. You think there’s a demon in this jar? What kind of jar is this? A jar for demon ants? So I threw it on the ground!”

Yes. Throw it on the ground! You don’t need a jar with a demon, you’re an adult! You don’t need some second hand demon!

GOODNIGHT!!!