"It's What's Inside" - Prosopagnosia patients nightmare.

Josh
Feb 10, 2025
5 min read

Updated: Mar 23, 2025

Greg Jardin (2024)

Finally, a Netflix original worth watching.

Spoilers

Back in the 90’s when horror was on life support after the gluttony of slashers from the 80s dying out, psychological thrillers were taking centre stage for the mainstream taboo cinema experience. The slasher genre was then revived with Scream, fashioning the meta slasher with the cast from a The Gap catalogue. And then came the spike of hot teen-based horror movies from the 90s to early 2000s. Key takeaways from watching those movies now are bad outfits (although some early 2000s drips seem to be making a comeback) and clear adults playing high schoolers. Now we have adults who still look like teens and better fashion, yet most also come packaged with a layer of meta-cringe-self-awareness. It's rare to watch a modern horror flick without it being centred around a group of insufferable narcissistic teens, where someone makes a self ware comment about Instagram or Tiktok without actually saying anything. Recently, two movies have stood out to actually work with that group of characters, Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) and It’s What’s Inside (2025). Both manage to have a group of teens where one had an absurdly large house and they all seem to hate one another for one reason or another. While our lead is a humble girl that doesn't really fit in with the crowd… but this one had a body swapping machine.

Brittany O'Grady, James Morosini, Gavin Leatherwood, Nina Bloomgarden, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Reina Hardesty, Devon Terrell, David Thompson - Courtesy of Netflix

Out of a large group of characters we focus on Shelby (Brittany O'Grady), who opens our movie dressing herself up for some role play with her boyfriend, Cyrus (James Morosini). As she's mimicking phrases and putting on a blond wig, Cyrus still isn't into it despite it being his idea. Her effort and attempts to keep the spark going can't seem to match up with his fantasy of hooking up with their influencer friend, Nikki (Aussie star Alycia Debnam-Carey). With low self-esteem and no one getting off, they head over to a pre-wedding party. And as we're introduced to the rest of the crew Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood), Maya (Nina Bloomgarden), Brooke (Reina Hardesty), Reuben (Devon Terrell), we get tid-bits of gossip. Who hates who, why are they here, are they coming, what happened to them. Which is a decent way to get some open ended questions flowing through the brains of the audience and presented in a long take bouncing between characters coming and going. And as the last and most controversial of the guests arrive, Forbes (David Thompson), the awkward friend who caused ripples in the group, brings a machine required to play a game. A game in which the players swap bodies with one another with an objective to guess who's who.

They use the body swap concept to explore the desires of our couple as an outer body experience, it didn't do much with the concept beyond people talking and hooking up. Understanding its a character study that examines perspectives, but I wish they got a bit more creative with it. It does all peak and change pace during the worst case scenario for two participants.

Sadly the deaths don't come as a surprise, more you're just waiting for it to happen. The party is hosted in this ridiculously large house with random pieces of art and useless rooms. One room being a room full of mirrors and LED lights, like a gooner den. The room is use to set up a reveal to our characters but that's all the justification we get for the room. It's just there for plot reasons with no logical real world reason, so it feels out of place compared to the rest of the house.

The biggest obvious set up was an art piece so abstract and sharp it's like the artist designed it to be a danger to anyone within a 5 meter radius. So your brain instantly begins thinking, well when is someone gonna cark it on that. Yet it's this final confrontation where I found it the most enjoyable. As everyone argues about what's morally the best way to get out of the situation. Who should return to whose body and who needs to remain in their vessel. And I wish this came a bit earlier in the movie to dwell on it more but it happens and then the we just sprint to the end.

And if you're wondering, “Hey, if they're swapping bodies, how do they keep track of who's who? Wouldn't that get confusing?”. And you'll be right! The Jardin does get creative with how story beats and scenes are presented which at points help show who is who. It's established that Brooke creates these layered drawings that when looking at them through different coloured plastic, show a single part of the drawing. Think early red and blue 3D glasses. This is used in the film to show who is truly who, as the screen is bathed in red you watch the true personas argue or flirt between each other. And part of the game is that once you're caught, you pin a polaroid photo of yourself to your body but even then, I still found myself going cross eyed through the majority of the movie. As tensions rise people lie about who is really who and the ending is all about mistrust on people's intentions under the surface it can get a bit much. Although fun, it's one that I'll have to watch more to fully wrap my head around. But everyone does a great job acting as other people in their own body with reactions and mannerisms.

Even the flashbacks are shrouded in perspectives, mistrust, misunderstandings and presented in a creative manner. One of the main catalysts for the friends' muddling friendship was a mishap that happened at a party. As the group recalls the night it's presented in a series of photos that add and remove elements and skip through the night as people explain what they saw from their perspective. And these flashbacks change various times throughout the movie. In general with the colours and aspect ratio it has the vibe of a 70s DePalma flick, even taking from early silent films where a vignette will appear focusing on someone from a wide shot.

It's a fun enough crowd pleaser although one I wouldn't throw on if people won't pay attention. And it's a wonder that this was produced as a Netflix original as it's not very second screen friendly. If you drop attention then good luck keeping up on who's who.