Larry Cohen's grisly and original take on the monster movie is very much a product of its time. This is a cold, unflinching '70s film, where every camera shot seems to take place on the corner of a regular street, inhabited by regular, hard-working guys, and the cold night air seems to give a chilly, clinical atmosphere to what's taking place on screen. IT'S ALIVE reminds me very much of early Cronenberg: think SHIVERS and RABID. This is a disturbing film that has the atmosphere of a never-ending nightmare: despite some dodgy effects and occasional campiness, for the most part the horror works.
The story of a mutant baby crawling around and biting people to death sounds pretty ludicrous on the face of it. There are only so many stalk-and-slash scenarios that the director can work with, although his blurred-eye-vision tracking shots seem to have influenced Carpenter when he made HALLOWEEN. No, Cohen wisely chooses to focus on emotion and characterisation over action, and the central character is the distraught father who runs a gamut of feelings when he discovers that his baby is responsible for a hospital massacre. John P. Ryan, giving one of the all-time-great B-movie performances, excels as the clinically detached dad who discovers his paternal instincts at the film's climax.
The special effects are quite poor by today's standard (the baby is played by a regular actor in close-up shots) and Cohen keeps the monster off-screen for the most part, which does help counter the general cheapness. Still, I found the baby quite eerie, thanks mainly to Rick Baker's makeup work, and the fact that it retains some humanity helps to give the film its emotional heart. Despite the low budget, IT'S ALIVE is also blessed with an absolutely fantastic soundtrack thanks to Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann, who goes all out to create spooky, evocative and atmospheric music. The presence of these three men (Herrmann, Ryan and Cohen) makes this film a minor classic of the period.
The story of a mutant baby crawling around and biting people to death sounds pretty ludicrous on the face of it. There are only so many stalk-and-slash scenarios that the director can work with, although his blurred-eye-vision tracking shots seem to have influenced Carpenter when he made HALLOWEEN. No, Cohen wisely chooses to focus on emotion and characterisation over action, and the central character is the distraught father who runs a gamut of feelings when he discovers that his baby is responsible for a hospital massacre. John P. Ryan, giving one of the all-time-great B-movie performances, excels as the clinically detached dad who discovers his paternal instincts at the film's climax.
The special effects are quite poor by today's standard (the baby is played by a regular actor in close-up shots) and Cohen keeps the monster off-screen for the most part, which does help counter the general cheapness. Still, I found the baby quite eerie, thanks mainly to Rick Baker's makeup work, and the fact that it retains some humanity helps to give the film its emotional heart. Despite the low budget, IT'S ALIVE is also blessed with an absolutely fantastic soundtrack thanks to Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann, who goes all out to create spooky, evocative and atmospheric music. The presence of these three men (Herrmann, Ryan and Cohen) makes this film a minor classic of the period.