With the recent passing of genre giant Larry
Cohen, this week's title is his first horror film, 1974's It's Alive.
The birth of the Davies' second child
brings them nothing but pain and suffering when it turns out to be
murdering mutant. And it's loose in Los Angeles!
Had to spring for VOD on this one, as I do not own the VHS sadly. It's Alive was
another title I thought I'd seen as a kid, but realized pretty
early on that was not the case. I guess my memory of the baby's POV tearing through an operating room must have been from one of the
sequels. No matter.
I could certainly see that this was
Cohen's earliest foray into horror as it possessed a more deliberate pace
than his later efforts. The ones
I grew up with, specifically Q & The Stuff, have more grandeur and larger scope. When looking at his
work as a whole, you can see his progression as a filmmaker.
Sharon Farrell & John P. Ryan in It's Alive. |
Now, that's not to say there isn't a
shitload of personality in this movie. John P. Ryan (who always
played the villain in the movies of my youth like Avenging Force and
Class of 1999) had some terrific moments, including some odd banter
with a Scottish nurse and his choice to smoke & chew gum at the
same time. How? Why? And don't even get me started on the cops.
It's Alive existed in a weird universe
that seemed to over-react to the situation at hand. A mutant
baby escaped from the hospital and somehow it's the parent's fault,
as the father lost his job and the mother was loaded up with pills.
Even the press seemed to be on their back, naming the couple in the news before the blood was even dry.
I did like how the creature itself was
handled. It was a gradual reveal, using shadow and blurred lenses to
start, and even some body suit work in its most effective moments.
The puppetry was obviously more rudimentary than what we'd get from
gore guru Rick Baker in the decades to come, but the sound design
made up for it in spades. Throw in a solid score from legend Bernard
Herrmann and you've got an inherently watchable flick, if maybe not as colourful
as Cohen's later collaborations with Michael Moriarty.
Also, now that I've read that the baby
was modelled after the Starchild in Stanley Kubrick's 2001, that's all I can
fucking see now!
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