It’s What’s Inside (2024) Review: Greg Jardin’s Debut Feature is a Crafty Body-Swapping Genre Bender

It’s What’s Inside takes the oft-seen body-swapping premise and turns it into a whirlwind narrative spin of what’s it like to live in someone’s else body and much, much more. This isn’t a mainstream-friendly Big or Freaky Friday, though — among two of the quintessential genre movies because first-time feature director Greg Jardin, who also wrote the screenplay, is more interested in exploring a twisted point of view surrounding a group of twentysomething friends swapping bodies.

The movie follows Shelby (Brittany O’Grady) and Cyrus (James Morosini), who are first seen arguing behind closed doors about their unexciting sex lives even with the former trying to seduce him by putting on a blonde wig and lingerie. They are supposed to attend their fellow friend Reuben’s (Devon Terrell) bachelor party in his mansion, where Shelby initially hesitated to go in the first place. Reuben also invites the rest of his friends including famous social media influencer Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey); unruly Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood) who’s been living off his rich parents’ trust fund; artsy Brooke (Reina Hardesty); and tattooed Bohemian-like Maya (Nina Bloomgarden).

Then, there’s the nerdy Forbes (David Thompson), who shows up at Reuben’s party and surprises everyone. Reuben did send him an invitation but isn’t sure whether he will come to his party and now, Forbes’ arrival triggers a lot of questions. None of them have gotten in touch with him ever since Forbes got expelled from college due to a controversial situation. He also brought along a mysterious briefcase, which contains a technological invention and he suggests a unique party game. What they need to do is place the wired electrodes on their temples and Forbes would flip the switches on, resulting in an out-of-body experience.

The experience would cause everyone to randomly swap bodies, meaning nobody knows who. This is where the game starts by guessing their identities and the correct answer would put a Polaroid of themselves on their shirts. Of course, it’s all fun and game at first as they are having a field day enjoying the body-swapping moments.

This, in turn, allows Jardin to take advantage of this high-concept premise and explore various themes from identities to vulnerabilities, dark secrets and obsessions. He keeps the pace swift that sometimes it can be frustrating to keep up with what’s going on. He even throws in a fancy bag of visual tricks to mirror his twentysomething characters’ mental and physical state of euphoria and confusion of a body-swapping experience. This includes everything from rapid-fire cuts to split screens, varied lighting and colour changes.

He doesn’t stop there as he enters the thriller territory later in the movie, spicing things up with a subsequent elaborate game of whodunit. I admire his intricate plotting in manipulation and misdirection as viewers can play armchair detectives guessing who actually belongs to who at the end of the movie.

But at the same time, I can’t help feeling his labyrinthine storytelling tends to get lost in the shuffles. This is especially true during the third act leading to a convoluted finale. And at times, his style-over-substance direction does seep through the cracks.

Still, It’s What’s Inside remains a bonkers fun-house of a body-swapping thriller blessed with game performances from all the young actors involved in playing the characters with different personalities. The movie originally premiered at Sundance’s Midnight section earlier this year, where Jardin’s genre-bending premise impressed Netflix so much to the point the streaming giant acquired worldwide distribution rights for a whopping US$17 million. It was one of the largest deals in Sundance history alongside other past expensive Netflix titles including Fair Play and Passing.

It’s What’s Inside is currently streaming on Netflix.