It's Alive (1974)

Dir: Larry Cohen

Starring: John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, Guy Stockwell

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Whatever It Is. It's Alive and Deadly.

Plot: The Davies are expecting a baby which turns out to be a monster with the nasty habit to kill when it's scared. And it's easily scared...






My Rating: 6.5/10

Would I watch it again? Sure, especially with the director's commentary

#195 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 2 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

Bernard Herrmann is my favorite film composer. Period. There's a long list of favorites but he's at the top. His musical voice is unlike any other. It's rich, inventive and daring. This is they guy who's first score was for CITIZEN KANE (1941) and later went on to do Alfred Hitchcock's best work including the amazing PSYCHO (1960). In the mid-60s he had a falling out with Hitch and Hollywood in general. He largely scored European movies for the next few years until the early to mid 1970s when he was re-discovered by young, up-and-coming filmmakers here in the U.S.. Independant film makers wanted his talent in a way he hadn't seen in years. So what you have here one of the best film composers EVER signing on to do low budget films, largely horror. He was a master at taking a very limited orchestra and turning it into something much larger and much better than the film it accompanied. Herrmann had just two more scores in him, OBSESSION and TAXI DRIVER (both of which are outstanding scores). Herrmann died hours after recording the final cues for TAXI DRIVER on December 24, 1976.



I was surprised to find that IT'S ALIVE is a pretty good film. It doesn't look as low-budget as it should. I suppose credit goes to Cohen on that one. The performances are fine and nobody really drops the acting ball. Ryan, who plays the titular character's father, is wonderful in the beginning prior to the birth if IT but after that he seems to be overdoing it a bit. The plot point about IT trying to find its way home via the school that ITs' brother goes to is over the top BUT the scene/deaths at the school are fun and carry a good deal of suspense with it so I can overlook all of that. Guy Stockwell does an awesome job as John's boss who has to let him go from the PR firm John works for because of the negative publicity generated by his new kill-happy son (IT).

As for IT, IT's great. Having a killer freak-show baby crawling around killing everything in sight is super-cool. Go IT! There's a nice turn in the story with IT and the father towards the end. I saw it coming but it's still cool. And, naturally, there's a set-up for a sequel but, even though it's a cheap way to do it, it doesn't happen the way you'd expect. Nice.

I'm sure the two sequels it spawned (bwahahaha) get worse with each one but I'll eventually check them out.

And what about Herrmann's music? It's great. It's different. It's out-there. It's Bernard Herrmann and that's why I like him.