In description, It’s What’s Inside reads like a cousin to two great recent films. First, there’s the “friends get together for a reunion and it goes very wrong” Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. Then, there the “through a devilishly simple device, people tap into something they rapidly lose control of” Talk to Me. If you have a longer memory, Flatliners may even come mind. It fails to achieve the heights of any of those movies. Nonetheless, writer-director Greg Jardin’s first feature effort boasts an intriguing premise and enough visual flair to make it worth a watch.

On the night before Reuben’s (Devon Terrell) wedding, the soon-to-be groom brings together his old college running crew. Most important among them (for the film) are Cyrus (James Morosini) and Shelby (Brittany O’Grady). They’ve been together so long their friends repeatedly assume they’re married. They are not and there’s no nuptials on the horizon. Additionally, they’re the kind of couple in their 20s that says things like, “I thought we agreed we’d save our sexual energy for each other.” while trying to jumpstart their largely dormant sex life with wigs and nodding towards roleplaying as their friends.

Surprising everyone, Forbes (David Thompson) is also on the guest list. Even more unexpected is that he shows up. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since he got kicked out of college for an incident involving trust fund lothario Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood) and Forbes’ underage sister Beatrice (Madison Davenport). Hilariously, none of the other friends seem to know what exactly happened or why Forbes got kicked out, despite them all being present for the events and at least a couple of them later giving testimony to the administration afterward.

Regardless of what did happen, Forbes, a formerly notorious partier, shows up and refuses drugs or alcohol. Instead, he suggests the group use his new invention, a briefcase-sized switchboard that allows people to swap consciousnesses to play a game. The premise is simple. Everyone swaps bodies and then attempts to figure out who is in who’s body. Forbes, acting as the game master, can’t guess, but swaps as well. While Shelby hesitates, she quickly caves to peer pressure as everyone else is enthusiastically on board. Things, of course, don’t go as planned.

As noted, it is a great premise fueled by a device the script has smartly made a fact and handwaved how it works. It gives It’s What’s Inside an excellent storytelling springboard to explore the brain-body connection and the psychology of being yourself but not looking like yourself. Unfortunately, almost all the characters are so flat that there’s virtually nothing in them to explore. Maya (Nina Bloomgarden) is a new-agey stoner. Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is an online influencer who holds space in Cyrus and Shelby’s relationship without knowing it. Brooke (Reina Hardesty) is… friendly? Honestly, if the others are vaguely sketched, she’s a stick figure.

As a result, the film becomes largely about Cyrus and Shelby’s psychosexual drama. Thankfully, there’s interesting and twisted stuff there. Especially for Shelby, who seems set free by the body swapping in a way Cyrus can’t reconcile and certainly doesn’t share. A second ill-advised pairing that becomes very consequential also arises. Still, because the audience knows so little of those characters, it feels like pure plot mechanics and little else.

In addition to most of the characters lacking, well, characterization, the film essentially doesn’t deliver what’s on the tin. Or perhaps it is because of the characters’ hollowness. Billed as a horror-comedy, it is rarely the latter and pretty much never the former. What it is, mostly, is a sci-fi-tinged drama with occasional thriller energy. In execution, it unfolds far more like the second act of a locked door mystery when all the potential suspects/victims turn on each other and squabble than either of its promised genres. That’s fine by this writer, but viewers in search of laughs or chills should be aware that the film has little of either. The horror label, in particular, baffles.

Jardin—who also edits the film—works with cinematographer Kevin Fletcher and production designer Terry Watson to make great use of Reuben’s family’s estate. An inherently ludicrous setting complete with lights that illuminate just enough but not a bit more, a neon-lit mirror room, and a greenhouse, it gives the film a sense of scale and scope that the budget might not otherwise manage.

Speaking of lighting and mirrors, It’s What’s Inside makes heavy use of gels and reflective surfaces to acheive a distinctive palette. More importantly, it also ensures the audience knows what’s happening and who’s who. Losing track of which hollow characters are which or what they’re up to can be easy. Some of that confusion is good and gives the story juice. Too much, however, and viewers end up stranded. Left there too long and they’ll soon struggle to care to sort out what’s happening and why. By giving the audience glimpses of the “real” characters and alerting us to when they’re losing sense of themselves through red and blue gels, it makes things just clear enough. It’s a tricky line to walk to make the audience feel dizzy but not utterly shipwrecked, and It’s What’s Inside does it very well.

Overall, It’s What’s Inside is a bit mishappen. It’s top-heavy and overlong in the beginning. That makes the last 15 minutes before the title-carded Coda feel rushed even as it is the film’s best part. The Coda is also quite good, which is a mixed blessing. For one, there’s something frustrating and deflating about labeling one of the strongest parts as an “oh and also” afterthought. Additionally, it points out how missed opportunities riddle the script. Stronger writing could’ve better hinted to the audience some of the twists this last section reveals were unfolding all along. It’s errors like that—structural mismanagement, empty characters—that render It’s What’s Inside worth a look but ultimately unable to fulfill its one great idea.

It’s What’s Inside asks you to play a game on Netflix starting October 4.

It’s What’s Inside Trailer: