‘It’s What’s Inside’ Trailer: A Group of Friends Open Their Minds in Trippy Genre Mash-up

If you could step into your friends’ minds to see how they truly think and feel, would you?

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This is the question at the center of the upcoming Netflix horror comedy, “It’s What’s Inside.” Executive produced by Academy Award nominee Colman Domingo, the film marks the directorial debut of Greg Jardin, who also wrote the script and has a long history at Netflix after having directed promos for “Thirteen Reasons Why” and “When They See Us.”

The official synopsis for the film reads: “A group of friends gather for a pre-wedding party that descends into an existential nightmare when an estranged friend arrives with a mysterious game that awakens long-hidden secrets, desires, and grudges.”

Brittany O’Grady (“The White Lotus”), James Morosini (“I Love My Dad”), Gavin Leatherwood (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”), Nina Bloomgarden (“The Resort”), Alycia Debnam-Carey (“Fear the Walking Dead”), Reina Hardesty (“The Flash”), Devon Terrell (“Rap Sh!t”), and David Thompson (“The Boys”) star.

Domingo’s husband, Raul Domingo, also serves as a producer on the film, having previously worked with his partner on the recently released prison drama “Sing Sing” and the AMC documentary series “You Are Here.”

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In describing the film during an interview with Tudum last month, Jardin said, “It’s about a bunch of friends [who] get together in a house. One of them brings up a body-swapping machine. He suggests they play a game with it where they can all simultaneously swap bodies. Then the night devolves into existential chaos.”

The film follows a popular trend of friend groups staying in a luxurious home as a means of exploring issues around identity, privilege, and the human condition. Other projects to do so recently include A24’s “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and the British dark comedy “All My Friends Hate Me.”

“It’s What’s Inside” made its premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and later screened at SXSW. In our review of the film, an IndieWire critic wrote, “Everyone wants to know how the other half lives, but ‘It’s What’s Inside’ takes things a step further by exposing the nastiness and jealousy that prevents us from fully relating to each other. It’s a loud, colorful, frantic, and pitch black horror comedy about identity that mercilessly critiques modern anxiety about desirability and success.”

“It’s What’s Inside” streams on Netflix October 4. Watch the trailer below.