Naman Shrestha
Bishal Dutta wrote and directed the coming-of-age horror movie, ‘It Lives Inside,’ which stars Megan Suri (known for ‘Never Have I Ever’) as an Indian-American high schooler named Samidha “Sam” who, in a desperate attempt to fit in at school, keeps her distance from her Indian culture and seeks to assimilate to be like everyone else around her. In a fit of rage, Sam breaks her estranged friend Tamira’s mysterious jar and ends up releasing an ancient Indian demonic force called Pishach. When the Pishach kidnaps Tamira, Sam is forced to come to terms with her Indian heritage and take help from her conservative mother and her assimilated father alongside a sympathetic teacher in order to rescue her friend and defeat the evil entity once and for all.
Apart from Megan, the supernatural horror film consists of a talented cast, including Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan, Vik Sahay, Gage Marsh, Beatrice Kitsos, and Betty Gabriel. The dark and eerie visuals are set against the haunting corridors of the high school and cursed house of the characters, keeping the viewers on the edge of their seats as well as leaving them curious to wonder where it was filmed.
It Lives Inside Filming Locations
‘It Lives Inside’ was filmed in British Columbia, specifically in and around Vancouver. As per reports, principal photography for the horror film got underway around mid-October 2021 and continued for the following couple of months or so, seemingly wrapping up in late 2021 or early 2022. So, let’s not waste any time and dive right into all the specific locations where Sam searches for Tamira in the Bishal Dutta directorial!
Vancouver, British Columbia
The shooting for almost the entirety of ‘It Lives Inside’ took place in the major city of Vancouver, which lies in the Lower Mainland region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. From the looks of it, the production team set up camp in quite a few establishments, including a school or college campus portraying Sam’s high school and a couple of properties portraying the characters’ place of residence, to lens most of the interior scenes for the film.
Various exterior portions for ‘It Lives Inside’ were taped in the suburban area of Vancouver, which seemingly doubled as the American suburb where the protagonist resides and where most of the horror unfolds. In a virtual interview with ComingSoon in September 2023, Megan Suri was asked to elaborate on her experience filming the scenes with the Pishach. She explained, “…It’s funny because I’m a horror fan, and this is my first horror experience, so I feel like I’ve always dreamt about what it would be like as an actor doing this stuff.”
Megan further expanded, “Then you get to set, and it’s very technical, and there was a whole beautifully crafted suit that our incredible actress was inside of, doing all these crazy contortions — her name’s Jenaya Ross, and she’s an incredibly talented artist and contortionist. It was definitely a challenge because, on screen, it looks terrifying, but when you take off the head, it’s this really adorable Canadian, tall woman in it who speaks so sweet and kind and would never even hurt a fly and who became a friend. So it’s really a challenge, but it was fun. It was really fun, and to have Bishal (Dutta) off-camera directing me and giving me the reassurance that I was doing okay was…I think all that was needed for me to get through it.”
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