Festival darling ‘It’s What’s Inside’ heading to Netflix just in time for Halloween

For many, weddings can be a nightmare, especially when they’re forced to catch up with people they haven’t seen in years (and would rather forget). It’s What’s Inside takes this concept to horrifying levels as an estranged friend turns people’s lives inside out.

From the mind of Greg Jardin, who wrote and directed It’s What’s Inside comes a unique body-swapping film that bends the genre. The film has all the markers of a horror movie; a dimly lit room in a creepy house, a group of friends coming together (all keeping secrets from one another), and one estranged figure carrying a rather strange briefcase. Despite this, Jardin never thought of his film as a horror. In an article on Netflix’s TUDUM, the director said to Colman Domingo, the film’s executive producer, “We never considered it horror, I’d say it’s a sci-fi thriller with jokes.”

The aforementioned briefcase contains the power to swap bodies, with the gathered friends all finding themselves in one another’s bodies and rightfully freaking out about the whole thing. Talking to Domingo, Jardin succinctly said of his film, “A bunch of friends at a party, guy brings suitcase, shit gets crazy.” The film explores human relationships, with the friends all having to confront their feelings of insecurity, identity, and anxiety.

When can you watch It’s What’s Inside?

The film’s initial release was earlier this year, premiering on January 19 at the 2024 Sundance Festival. The film received a lot of buzz and was a hit at Sundance, catching the attention of Netflix, who paid $17 million to acquire it, the largest deal made for a film at the festival that year. It’s now making its way to Netflix and is set to kick off the spooky season on October 4.

Whose bodies are getting swapped?

We meet the wedding attendees in the form of anxious Shelby (Brittany O’Grady), her insensitive boyfriend Cyrus (James Morosini), mega-influencer Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey), the groom Reuben (Devon Terrell), trust-fund kid Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood), artist Brooke (Reina Hardesty), and spiritual Maya (Nina Bloomgarden). On top of that mess of personalities, we also have the enigmatic Forbes (David Thompson), owner of the briefcase.

You can check out the trippy mess this is going to cause in the trailer released last week.