It's Alive (1974/I)

Director:

Larry Cohen

Writer:

Larry Cohen (written by)

Release Date:

October 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

Whatever it is, it's alive and deadly.

Plot:

The Davies expect a baby, which turns out to be a monster with a nasty habit of killing when it's scared. And it's easily scared. |

Plot Keywords:

Baby | Monster | Hospital | Homicidal Baby | Throat Ripping

Awards:

1 win

Cast

John P. Ryan	...	Frank Davis (as John Ryan)
Sharon Farrell	...	Lenore Davis
James Dixon	...	Lieutenant Perkins
William Wellman Jr.	...	Charley
Shamus Locke	...	The Doctor
Andrew Duggan	...	The Professor
Guy Stockwell	...	Bob Clayton
Daniel Holzman	...	Chris Davis
Michael Ansara	...	The Captain
Robert Emhardt	...	The Executive
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nancy Burnett	...	Nurse (as Mary Nancy Burnett)

Also Known As:

Baby Killer (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1984) | UK:15 (video re-rating) | Portugal:M/16 | Netherlands:16 (DVD rating) | West Germany:18 | Norway:16 (video premiere) | Argentina:16 (re-rating) | Argentina:X (original rating) | Australia:R | Finland:(Banned) (1975) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:PG | Iceland:16 | Norway:(Banned) (1975-2003) (cinema release)

Company:

Larco Productions

Trivia:

Bernard Herrmann titled the music cue where the milkman meets his demise "The Milkman Goeth."

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: At the end, when Frank is holding the baby in his arms, the cover accidentally reveals a patch of hair, revealing it to be a dog.

Quotes:

Lieutenant Perkins: Hunting and killing babies doesn't seem to be my specialty.

Movie Connections:

Features Beep, Beep (1952)

It's Alive

It's a shame the last act drags so much, and it takes forever to wrap things up because this might have been quite an effective little shocker. It even manages to successfully pull off the impossible pitch of a killer baby on the loose played for chills, not laughs.

John Ryan in the lead seems to have wondered in from the wrong movie. His strangely sweaty performance is far too intense and he never convinces as the troubled, distraught father.

Legendary composer Bernard Herrmann does a decent job, but the impact of the music tends to be lost when you notice he ripped much of it off for his stunning Taxi Driver score two years later!

The murderous baby is naturally kept off camera for most of the running time, and we never get a good look at it, but it's a just-about-passable model job that only raises a giggle the first time it's glimpsed. One or two of the death scenes are handled well, particularly the genuinely disturbing aftermath of the birth, and the moment where a stream of spilled milk pouring from the van in which a man is being attacked slowly turns pink.

Not dreadful, but it suffers from pacing issues and even at 90 minutes it feels too long.