Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for It's What's Inside.Greg Jardin's feature debut, It's What's Inside, turns the concept of body-swapping into a mind-bending party game, with plenty of twists that keep you guessing until the very end. In this horror-comedy, a group of eight former college friends reunite on the eve of Reuben's (Devon Terrell) wedding. Our two protagonists are Shelby (Brittany O'Grady) and Cyrus (James Morosini), whose relationship has grown stale and sexless, with Shelby suspecting her boyfriend harbors feelings for their friend Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey). When Forbes (David W. Thompson) unexpectedly shows up to the reunion, he comes bearing a mysterious suitcase containing a small machine that allows people to temporarily switch bodies. Forbes compares his unique body-swapping game to social deduction party games like Werewolf and Mafia, except in this game, they have to guess who in the group has switched into whose body. This game ends up turning all their lives upside down, bringing old grudges and unrequited feelings to the surface with deadly consequences.
Forbes Tricks Everyone in Round 1
During Round 1, we follow Cyrus, who has switched into Reuben's body (and vice versa). Shelby makes it pretty obvious that she switched into Brooke's (Reina Hardesty) body, and Forbes, who switched into Dennis' body, proceeds to call Brooke by Shelby's nickname to give the impression that it's Cyrus in Dennis' body, not Forbes. After the group makes their guess, however, Forbes doesn't come clean and continues pretending to be Cyrus. Cyrus eventually plays along too, now pretending to be Forbes inside Reuben's body. Confusing, isn't it? While exploring the house, he bumps into Nikki, who he's been not-so-secretly pining over. At this point in the game, it's really Maya (Nina Bloomgarden) inside Nikki's body, but this doesn’t matter to Cyrus, who's attracted to Nikki regardless, and they hook up. Maya, who still has feelings for Reuben, is under the impression she's hooking up with Forbes inside Reuben's body but pretends it's really Reuben. It's a fantasy for Cyrus and Maya who are attracted to another person they can't realistically be with.
At the end of Round 1, everyone in the group switches back to their original bodies. Though Shelby was apprehensive about the game at first, she clearly enjoyed the experience, though Cyrus is still disturbed by Forbes' lie and hesitates to participate in Round 2. Shelby insists, and Cyrus eventually agrees but comes up with a signal so they can let each other know whose body they're in during the next round, just in case things go awry.
Tragedy Strikes During Round 2
During Round 2, Brooke (in Maya's body) and Reuben (in Dennis' body) sneak away to hook up on the house's crumbling balcony. Reuben knows she's not really Maya, but still has feelings for her and is attracted to her regardless. Brooke, on the other hand, who admitted to being jealous of Reuben's bride-to-be early on in the film, is more turned on by the fact that she's really hooking up with Reuben, even if it's not physically him. Things take a deadly turn, however, when the balcony collapses and Brooke and Reuben fall to their deaths while in Maya and Dennis' bodies. This leaves Maya (who's in Shelby's body) and Dennis (who's in Cyrus' body) without their own bodies to return to, meaning they'll be stuck in someone else's body forever, even if everyone else in the group switches back.
While Cyrus is adamant they all switch back before calling the police, Dennis doesn't like the idea of living the rest of his life as Reuben. The tension between Cyrus and Dennis finally boils over and as they hurl insults at each other, and the ugly truth comes out. During the infamous college party that ended with Dennis' arrest and Forbes' expulsion, Dennis cheated on Nikki with Forbes' sister Beatrice (Madison Davenport), who was still in high school. Cyrus, who had a crush on Nikki, told her about Dennis' cheating, but she ended up rejecting him anyway, and only then did he turn his attention to Shelby. This confirms Shelby's worst fears about their relationship, but now that she's inside Nikki's body, Shelby doesn't want to switch back and thinks staying in Nikki's body forever could save their relationship.
Nikki (in Brooke's body) hits Forbes (in Reuben's body) and knocks him unconscious, and she and Cyrus tie him up so he won't run off with the machine. But now that Shelby also knows how to work the machine, Nikki is worried she'll try to hijack her body when they all switch back. Shelby claims she'll switch everyone back into their own bodies, which would put Maya in Brooke's body and Dennis in Forbes' body, but really she planns to stay in Nikki's body and switch Cyrus into Reuben's body. Determined to get her body back, Nikki teams up with Dennis, who's not too thrilled about being stuck in Forbes' body either.
Who Ends up in Whose Body at the End of 'It’s What’s Inside?'
When everyone gathers around the machine to make the final switch, Nikki swipes peanut butter over Shelby's mouth. Since Nikki's body is severely allergic to peanuts, Shelby starts going into anaphylactic shock, and Nikki refuses to tell them where her EpiPen is until Forbes looks at the wiring to make sure everyone is switching back to their own bodies. Chaos ensues as the police burst into the room and the screen cuts to black, leaving plenty of unanswered questions. After a tumultuous night that left two people dead and others trapped inside a different person's body, It's What's Inside throws one more plot twist at you in the last ten minutes.
The morning after, we see Forbes' sister Beatrice angrily driving to Reuben's house to find the wedding has been canceled. She spots Forbes (who's really Dennis) sitting alone and attacks him, although Beatrice isn't who she appears to be. The person they all thought was Forbes was really Beatrice, who hijacked Forbes' machine and showed up to Reuben's pre-wedding party in Forbes' body looking for revenge. Throughout the film, we hear multiple versions of the college party that got Forbes kicked out of school, but the real Forbes (now in Beatrice's body) reveals his sister's side of the story. Not only had Dennis hooked up with Beatrice several times before the party, but that night, Dennis told everyone she was crazy and delusional. It turns out Beatrice really was mentally ill and ended up having one of her worst episodes after that party. It was Dennis who kept giving Beatrice alcohol during the party, and hearing everyone say she was having an episode actually caused her to have one so intense it landed her in a mental hospital and placed on suicide watch.
When Forbes returned home from California to visit his family, he showed Beatrice, who was still struggling with her mental health, the machine in an attempt to reconnect with her. Still stewing in anger, Beatrice stole the machine after they swapped bodies and set off to Reuben's party to get revenge on Dennis and everyone else. When she switched into Dennis' body during the first round, Beatrice used Dennis' phone to drain his trust fund and transfer all his money to an offshore account. Instead of returning everyone to their own bodies, Beatrice switches into Nikki's, and we see her driving off into the sunset, now with Nikki's body and Dennis' money.
In the end, only Shelby and Cyrus return to their own bodies, while Maya is switched into Brooke's body, Dennis into Forbes' body, Beatrice into Nikki's body, and Nikki into Reuben's body. Since Dennis called the police while in Cyrus' body claiming to have killed Maya and Reuben, Cyrus is detained at the end of the film, but after everything he's put Shelby through, she refuses to help him.
It's What's Inside
Comedy
Horror
Mystery
- Release Date
- January 19, 2024
- Director
- Greg Jardin
- Cast
- Brittany O'Grady , James Morosini , Gavin Leatherwood , Nina Bloomgarden , Alycia Debnam-Carey , Reina Hardesty , Devon Terrell , David Thompson , Madison Davenport , Myhraliza Aala , Francisco Diego Garcia , Dana Millican , Aly Nordlie
- Runtime
- 103 Minutes
- Writers
- Greg Jardin
It's What's Inside is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.