The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
image © The Thing Inside Us Productions
Article updated: 2022.09.14
The The Thing Inside Us (2021) is a fantasy mystery film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.
Product: The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
Original title: The Thing Inside Us
Series: -
Setting: fantasy Earth
Product type: Film, Genre: fantasy mystery, Style: sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, thriller, video mashup, documentary, handheld camera, bad editing, aliens
Release: 2021.11.05
Reviewer: Kadmon, Type: Male, 40s, Preferences: Immersive, logical story, consistent setting, prefers surprises to spoilers, prefers establishing elements before referencing them
Watched: very recent (2021.12), first time
Rating: Bad (1 out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Weak (2- out of 3 points)
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This is my review of The Thing Inside Us, a fantasy mystery movie from 2021. It's about a family trying to cure the sleepwalking habits of the wife. The The Thing Inside Us film is boring, I don't recommend the film to anyone.
If you'd like to be surprised by the The Thing Inside Us film, I don't recommend you to watch the trailer beyond 0:53, because it gives away too much of the plot.
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Review (spoiler-free) - The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
I’ve run into this movie based on a recommendation made from my usual choices. The concept sounded fun, so I sat down to watch it without watching the trailer first.
The The Thing Inside Us movie is about a family trying to cure the sleepwalking habits of the wife.
The concept of the story is good, I admit that. The script is weak, the execution of said script is also weak. The story is not very consistent, we jump from home videos to news reels. There are no character arcs. If you accept the basic plot, there are no major logical problems, but accepting the basics was very hard for me.
The cinematography is watchable, but not very interesting. There was one positive thing I liked – even though it’s a video mashup movie, posing as a documentary, there was no shaky cam employed. The special effects were mostly okay. I assume that the creators wanted to make the movie feel like it was created by the amateur character, who doesn’t know how to focus properly, or how to put the subject of the video into the frame. These, however, make watching the movie an unpleasant experience.
Although we spend quite a lot of time with them, we don’t really get to know the characters. The two main actors are okay, but not very convincing. To their defence, it’s mostly the fault of the script, not the actors. The supporting cast is weak – they got stereotype characters, but they can’t even act like those stereotypes.
I’m not even sure there was music in the movie. I read that they employed copyright free music, so those must have been used somewhere.
The Thing Inside Us is a boring fantasy mystery, that I think only the most dedicated fans of the genre could enjoy.
My experience
I was not satisfied with The Thing Inside Us (2021).
Rating: Bad (1 out of 3 points). The Thing Inside Us made almost every error that’s possible. The script is bad. The dialogues are unbelievable. The directing is bad. The editing is awful. The actors are weak.
Enjoyment: Weak (2- out of 3 points). The Thing Inside Us has an interesting concept, and had some good moments between the long boring scenes.
Rewatchability: Low. I think it's mostly the surprise of the story that makes you feel interested. And I don’t think anyone would ever want to watch this again.
Chance of watching it again: Nope.
Chance of watching a sequel: There’s a possibility. But I’d read a little bit more about that before watching it.
The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
image © The Thing Inside Us Productions
Will you enjoy this?
If you like mystery or thriller movies, there’s a possibility that you might like The Thing Inside Us.
If you like alien invasion movies (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), you might like the film, although there are not many action scenes or scary scenes in the The Thing Inside Us movie.
If you like found footage style horror films, you might be interested in this.
If you get through the first 10 minutes of the The Thing Inside Us film still interested, you might enjoy the rest movie.
If you don't mind illogical elements in your movies, you can enjoy this.
If you prefer visuals over story, just avoid this movie. It doesn’t have anything you could consider “visuals”.
If you hate alien invasion movies, you should probably skip this.
Watching for plot points
If you are interested in alien invasion stories, I think it's worth watching the The Thing Inside Us movie for the plot points. Although you might be better off just reading our summary.
Should you watch this on your own screen at home, or is it worth going to the cinema?
The visuals definitely look better if you watch it on the smallest screen possible.
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The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
image © The Thing Inside Us Productions
Review with spoilers - The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
I didn’t like the The Thing Inside Us movie.
Cover
The cover of the movie is completely misleading, and also spoils the ending.
The trailer
The trailer is not bad, but it spoils large parts of the movie.
If you prefer spoilers, it's a great trailer for the The Thing Inside Us film. If you prefer to avoid spoilers, it will ruin the movie for you.
Promise of the first scene
A woman is making strange noises. Based on the title, I suppose she’s an alien made to look like the woman, or has an alien parasite in her, or she is controlled by mind controlling aliens.
Execution: Well, yeah, we got exactly that.
Plot summary / Synopsis
In 2019, Springfield, Louisiana, a woman (Christine Tonry as Shelly) wakes up, gets of of her house, than makes strange noises.
Video 1: Introduction
The husband (Chad Graham as Daniel) wakes up, takes a camera, and introduces the viewer to what happens to the woman – she wakes up every night, to come to the same place, outside of their house, and look at the sky. It’s been going for two and a half year. They’ve installed cameras all around the house, and put the videos online, so someone who knows how to treat the woman, could contact them.
The news report there’s a virus (the Livingstone Virus) spreading through mosquito bites, that causes fatal encephalytis in very rare cases.
Video 2: The Noise
The husband follows her, as she makes the strange noises.
They speak with a doctor. It turns out that the woman started sleepwalking after her husband got into the hospital due to a serious viral infection. She was pregnant when the sleepwalking started, and she lost the child on the second day of the sleepwalking.
She hears voices from the TV static. The husband starts to exchange emails with someone whose husband had a similar case.
Video 3: Changes
She starts to sleepwalk at the day. They lock the doors for night. Still, during the day, it confuses her that she imagines a normal day happening, even if she is actually sleeping.
Video 4: Locked doors.
Wherever the husband hides the keys, the woman finds it immediately.
There are news reports about the spread of the virus. It’s probably not only spread by mosquitoes but other means. A researches theorises that by next year 99% of the population will either carry the disease or be dead.
One night the woman tells her husband not to follow. He still does, and she hits him, telling him that “he is lucky that she loves him”. While the husband is out there, looking for her, she got back home to her bad, and finally woke up there.
The doctor tells them that they should stop recording every minute of their life, as it might cause the stress that causes the sleepwalking. He also asks the woman to stop her pregnancy medication, as they might cause sleepwalking as a side-effect.
The woman starts to listen to the voices she hears. She closes her inside a room, and cuts her hand. Meanwhile, someone is destroying the cameras outside the house. By the time the husband gets inside, she is gone.
Video 5: Missing
The woman is missing for two days. A detective arrives, and he accuses the husband that this is just a hoax, or it was the husband who made the woman disappear. He gets an email that the woman will return on the sixth day.
On the sixth day, she returns, and acts like nothing happened. She puts her pregnancy medication in the garbage, saying that she got over that.
The next three days she spends her night in the bed, sleeping. The detective comes by, and tells them that he found some kids who admitted that they were the ones who broke those cameras.
The news report shows a researcher, who says that the virus is practically everywhere, and doesn’t cause serious symptoms. They will be fine without a vaccine.
As she is not sleepwalking any more, she demands to take the cameras off. The husband gets an email that it’s not her wife any more, she was exchanged when she went missing, and the proof is in her blood. So he installed small spy cameras, without the woman knowing.
Video 6: Relapse
Listening to her voices, the woman found out about the cameras. She wants to leave, but her husband ties her up. He cuts her, and worms wriggle in her blood. When the husband steps on the worms, she summons a flying saucer-looking spaceship. She admits that they are alien worms who use the body of his wife. They would prefer to keep him alive, as it would make the host sad if he’d die. The doctor and the detective arrives, as they are also hosts to alien worms. The husband kills the detective, but although the host is dead, the doctor saves the worms inside of him.
His landlord arrives, and tells the husband that it was him who sent those emails. He is also immune to the alien worms.
During the credits, we see news headlines, including one that implies that those who are immune to the virus, are considered dangerous by the government. Also, the husband and the landlord became wanted fugitives.
The setting
To story is set on a contemporary fantasy Earth, where an alien invasion is happening in secret.
There's also a pandemic going on.
The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
image © The Thing Inside Us Productions
The creature
There are alien creatures, who came to Earth in spaceships that look like flying saucers. The creatures are small, worm-like, the size of an earthworm, and millions of worms can fit into the body of a human host. (Although it’s hard to imagine millions of earthworms physically inside a human that’s still have the biological functions of a human.)
Sometimes it looks like they are able to read the minds of humans. (But only if they are looking for hidden keys, otherwise they don’t seem to possess this ability.)
They infect humans. First, they used mosquitoes to infect humans. Later, they changed to more effective methods.
Some hosts reject the infection, causing symptoms of a viral infection. A minority even dies. If the host is pregnant, they probably lose the baby days after the sleepwalking starts.
When a host dies, if there’s another host nearby, it can cut his hand, to let the worms float inside them.
The technology on their spaceship allows them to instantly disappear – it’s either making them invisible, or teleports them away.
The infection
The infected host wakes up in the middle of the night, and starts sleepwalking. If they get tied up, they do everything to get free, while screaming.
The host goes to the same spot every time, looks up to the sky, then starts to make strange noises. After two and a half year, one changed spot, then the daily sleepwalking began.
During daily sleepwalks, the host imagines an ordinary situation that they are doing, instead of sleeping. It can be confusing for them, as they can’t tell what’s real any more.
Then, one day, the target goes missing for six days. After that, they return, and won’t be sleepwalking any more, but they are fully controlled by the alien worms.
The message of the story
I'm not sure there's one. “If your significant other starts sleepwalking, leave them immediately”? The ending implies something like “don’t trust doctors, or the government”, but it’s not entirely clear.
The structure of the story
The scenes of the The Thing Inside Us film are mostly played in sequence, following the same storyline. There are some scenes that repeat previous scenes, or previous scenes from a different angle.
There is a single viewpoint character, the husband, and his cameras.
It has the usual arc of the dramatic structure - introduction, action, resolution.
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Things I liked
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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?
I haven't seen any other works of the writer / director (Paul Catalanotto). But seeing that this was his 26th work according to IMDB, I’m not sure I want to see the others.
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The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
image © The Thing Inside Us Productions
Analysis of the story - The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
I didn’t really like the story, as there were multiple problems, both with the script and the acting that prevented me from enjoying The Thing Inside Us.
Problematic elements
Incredibly stupid characters: It’s hard for me to imagine people this stupid. I don’t say it’s impossible, but hard to swallow.
- It took two and a half year to come up with the idea that the husband could get up with the woman, and follow her while she gets outside.
- As the woman stands in the open, and rain falls on her, they could have put up a small shed in the exact area she’s standing at night.
- Calling their doctor a donkey in online videos they show him is never a wise choice.
The structure: The movie is supposed to be a series of online videos. But there are interludes there that feel to break this idea. For someone who are making videos for years about their lives, they still look like beginners. It would have been good if the film makers could have contacted some life vloggers, and copied their style to make those videos.
Also, we are lead to believe that the videos were uploaded in sequence. However, only after the last video did the significance of the virus become clear. Yet, even in the first video, we see news reports made about the virus.
The locked doors: If she already knows where will she find the keys, and she probably already knows the door are locked, why does she check the doors first? Is the creature able to read human minds?
The call for the spaceship: How does a regular human voice able to send such a loud noise that a spaceship in the sky is able to receive it?
Millions of worms: If the creatures are the size of an earthworm, how do they fit millions of them inside a human body?
Mind reading: Is the creature able to read human minds? Sometimes it looks like it does, but otherwise it acts like it doesn’t.
The global pandemic: There are some mentions of a pandemic going on, and in the end we get to know that most of the world got either dead or infected. But there are no signs of this in the setting. The characters act as if nothing extraordinary is happening. There should be lock-downs, mandatory quarantines, problems with supplies, and stuff like that.
The infected: The infected start to sleepwalk. The first infections started more than 2 and half years ago. By then, every household should have a sleepwalker relative, so it shouldn’t take that long to find someone who’d know what’s going on.
Unanswered questions
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Possibilities of improvement
Edit the story it in a way, and add dialogue, implying that the husband made this video montage after the woman left him, and after he knew every detail.
Instead of individual videos, and showing daily routine, focus on those parts that will be interesting later. The husband could add ominous dialogue to some parts that will be understood later.
There’s probably 45 minutes or so story inside this movie, cut the whole thing to that interesting core.
It would be better if the story would start right when the sleepwalking starts, so if there would be a way to cut and edit the movie to work like that, it would improve the movie.
Creating a better CGI spaceship for the ending scene.
How it could have been better?
Make the characters not incredibly stupid. The story should start at the beginning, immediately when they realise some strange thing is happening. We should see how he ties up the woman, tries to lock the doors, and what happens then.
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Behind the scenes
Thoughts about the reviews of others
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The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
image © The Thing Inside Us Productions
Uses for the film - The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
Plot
- Set in a contemporary setting.
- Aliens want to colonise the Earth.
- Aliens arrive through a spaceship to the Earth.
- Creatures (alien parasites) infect people.
- Creatures (alien parasites) infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
- They use mosquitoes to spread an infection.
Scenes
- The very first scene is good and creepy, it could be used to show signs alien control.
Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas
- A friend of the team starts to act strangely – sleepwalking at night, then sleepwalking at day, then disappears for days. The team has to find out what is happening.
Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas
- Symbiote army: One force consists of symbiotes (or parasites) inhabiting a host. If one of the host bodies die, a nearby active model can move to it, and take the creature living inside. At the end of the game, this casualty will cost only half Victory points. One model can save any number of creatures.
- Single save (Harder for the creatures): One model can only save one creature, then it gets a marker to show it’s full.
- Alien invasion: There’s an alien invasion. An elite team of soldiers is sent to destroy an alien nest. The invader player sets up the playing area, with a well defended house in the middle. The invader player secretly signs or writes up where the unarmed aliens are hiding in the house. Then the soldier team enters from any edge of the playing area. Unknown to the soldier’s command, the aliens are able to infect humans, and they can take over their bodies. The invader player can choose a soldier model any time, and check for infection. Roll a d6. On a 1, the soldier is infected, put a marker on the model, or switch the model to another one, and from then on, the invader player controls that model. On 2-6, the model is not infected, and the invader can’t test that model another time. Once the soldiers realise that the model is infected, they can treat it like an enemy.
- Pandemic (Harder for the soldiers): The infection spread all over the world. Roll a d6. On 1-3, the infection just started, and only a 1 works on the infection test. On 4-5, it’s 1-2 on the infection test. On a 6, it’s 1-3 on the infection test.
- Checking for infection (Easier for the soldiers): The infection is known by the soldier’s command, and they test the soldiers before deployment. When the soldier team is deployed, roll an infection test for every model before deploying them. If the test is positive, then remove the soldier. The invader player can still test for infection, but on a positive test, they need to roll another test again, and the model is infected only if the second roll is positive again.
Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)
Hosts: Human-sized human civilians.
Creatures: Tiny swarm of worms.
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Similar stories - The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
Short stories
Philip K. Dick: The Father-Thing (1954): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and replace people.
Philip K. Dick: The Hanging Stranger (1953): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
Robert Silverberg: Passengers (1968): In a contemporary setting, aliens rule the world, who can control people.
Novels
Jack Finney: The Body Snatchers (1954): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and replace people.
Ira Levin: The Stepford Wives (1972): In a contemporary setting, people kill and replace undesirable people.
Robert A. Heinlein: The Puppet Masters (1951): In a futuristic setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
Kenneth Von Gunden: Star Spawn (1990): In a medieval setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
John W. Campbell: Who Goes There? (1938): In a contemporary setting, an aliens infects and replaces people.
Stephenie Meyer: The Host (2008): In a post-apocalyptic setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
Graphic novels
Movies
Agent (2017): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
Assimilate (2019): In a contemporary setting, creatures infect and replace people.
Body Snatchers (1993): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and replace people. Based on the The Body Snatchers novel.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and replace people. Based on the The Body Snatchers novel.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and replace people. Based on the The Body Snatchers novel.
Invasion of the Pod People (2007): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and replace people. I haven't seen this, and it's probably not a very good film.
Revenge of the Stepford Wives (1980): In a contemporary setting, people brainwash undesirable people to control them. Based on the The Stepford Wives novel.
The Brain Eaters (1958): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and control people, until they are used up.
The Invasion (2007): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and replace people. Based on the The Body Snatchers novel.
The Faculty (1998): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
The Host (2013): In a post-apocalyptic setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world. Based on the The Host novel.
The Puppet Masters (1994): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world. Based on the The Puppet Masters novel.
The Stepford Children (1987): In a contemporary setting, people brainwash undesirable people to control them. They are replaced by robots during the process. Based on the The Stepford Wives novel.
The Stepford Husbands (1996): In a contemporary setting, people brainwash undesirable people to control them. Based on the The Stepford Wives novel.
The Stepford Wives (1975): In a contemporary setting, people kill and replace undesirable people. Based on the The Stepford Wives novel.
The Stepford Wives (2004): In a contemporary setting, people kill and replace undesirable people. Based on the The Stepford Wives novel.
The Thing (1982): In a contemporary setting, an alien infects and replaces people. Based on the Who Goes There? novella.
TV series & episodes
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams: The Father-Thing (2018): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and replace people. Based on the The Father-Thing short story.
Star Trek: Operation -- Annihilate! (1967): In a futuristic setting, aliens infect and control people.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Conspiracy (1988): In a futuristic setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
The Outer Limits: The Invisibles (1964): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and control people, with the intention of ruling the world.
The X-Files: Folie à Deux (1998): In a contemporary setting, a creature infects and controls people.
The X-Files: Ice (1993): In a contemporary setting, a creature infects and controls people.
The X-Files: Roadrunners (2000): In a contemporary setting, a creature infects and controls people.
The X-Files: Ep1: Tunguska, Ep2: Terma (1996): In a contemporary setting, aliens infect and control people.
Computer games
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Frequently asked questions - The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
Is the The Thing Inside Us film based on a book or comics?
No, The Thing Inside Us is not based on either books or comics.
Is the The Thing Inside Us film a remake or reboot?
No, the The Thing Inside Us film is neither a remake nor a reboot.
Is there a post credit scene in The Thing Inside Us? Does The Thing Inside Us have end credit scenes?
While there’s no post credit scene in The Thing Inside Us, but during the credits we still get snippets of the end of the story, so you should watch it.
Where can I see The Thing Inside Us? Where can I watch The Thing Inside Us online? Is The Thing Inside Us available on Netflix? Is The Thing Inside Us on Amazon?
As of 2022.09.14, the The Thing Inside Us is available on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Microsoft Movies, Tubi, YouTube, Vudu.
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Resources - The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
Official
The Thing Inside Us Facebook page: Official page.
Information
IMDB: The Thing Inside Us (2021): Database article.
Letterboxd: The Thing Inside Us 2021: Database article.
Reviews with no spoilers - The Thing Inside Us film (2021)
Nate Stephenson (for Horror Buzz): THE THING INSIDE US–A Slightly Decent Knock-off Of Better Movies: Review article about the The Thing Inside Us film with no spoilers.
Reviews with spoilers - The Thing Inside Us film (2021)
Jim Morazzini (for Voices From The Balcony): The Thing Inside Us (2021) Review: Review article of the The Thing Inside Us movie, with spoilers.
Analysis - The Thing Inside Us movie (2021)
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Buying the product - The Thing Inside Us, movie (2021)
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Have you seen the The Thing Inside Us film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!
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