It's Alive
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.99 You Save: $8.99 (69%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.17 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of It's Alive
Movie Review: With my luck, my kid is going to end up like this...
Summary: 4 Stars
It's Alive is a Classic B movie from the 70's. What's it about? Two words: Killer Baby. Despite you ever getting a chance to see the baby, it's a rather interesting film that is done pretty well. Take this movie for what it is. It's a B movie with good acting, hilarious storyline, yet manages to take itself seriously. I was surprised by this film. I thought it would have been pure crap, but it was carried out rather well and seriously. I really enjoyed the movie as I am sure others do too. I wouldn't advise buying this movie though, just rent it instead or get it for a cheap price. It's not a film you will watch often, but you will find yourself telling your friends about it. Rent it, laugh a bit, and enjoy it. I sure did. My favorite scene was when the killer baby attacks the milkman, it's awesome.Movie Review: Much better than average
Summary: 4 Stars
A factor most forget is the soundtrack. I saw this when it was a new release and didn't pay much attention to details like make-up or music credits, but the soundtrack was immediately noticeable. It just wasn't like other 'B' horror flicks. The music gave the movie a peculiar aura, a strong sense of dread, one of intense gloom as much as the sense of horror. It also struck a sense of pity for the parents, the monstrous child too, a stunning disbelief since the cause of all this horror was far beyond what they could understand. So when I learned that it was no less than Bernard Herrmann who had done the soundtrack I wasn't surprised. He was a master at film music. If anyone else had scored "It's Alive" it probably would have been rather forgettable. This is definitely a film worth having.Movie Review: It's Alive- The baby's favriote play toy is you're body
Summary: 4 Stars
It's Alive is an awesome movie that is quite gruesome for it's time and to this day it still hold a PG rating!
Plot- The davies are about to have a new member added to the family, the only problem is, it's alive, now, no one knows who are what it is, but what they do know is that it's killing everything in sight and is very angry!
Acting- very strong, powerful preformance, John P. Ryan stole the show!
Gore- ripped throats, a lot of blood, bloody dead bodies and more!
Bottom Line- 4 out of 5!
Rated PG/ Time 91min/ 1974/ Color
Movie Review: Its A Good Cult Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
If you like cult movies I think you should look at this one.
Made in 73' Its the story of a family who wants a second child so the mother has another one. They think that the baby will grow up to be healthy and cute. But they were wrong. The baby comes out deformed and is not normal at all. Its out to kill.
I think the plot and the actors are really good in this movie. I think any cult horror fan will like this one. Pick it up at amazon.
Movie Review: A fun look at the '70s...but not a very scary film.
Summary: 3 Stars
In "celebration" of the Halloween spirit, my wife and I watched a couple of old horror flicks in recent days. As a lark, one of our selections was Larry Cohen's IT'S ALIVE. I had not seen the film in about 20 years, and I knew perfectly well it was not exactly a class act. But I was looking for modest, guilty-pleasure diversion.
It was a diversion, but not altogether a pleasure. Made in 1973/74, it absolutely REEKS of the sensibilities of that fashion-challenged time. Everyone smokes...everywhere. Bosses still played "grab a**" with their secretaries. Fabrics, carpets, cars and curtains were all shades of brown ("earth tones"). Everyone drank hard liquor. If the TV series MAD MEN slavishly recreates the feel of the early `60s...IT'S ALIVE actually gives a somewhat convincing idea of what the early `70s were like. Because not only was it made at that time, but everything was done on such a low budget that little concern was given to making things look nice or glamorous. It almost feels like the cast was just asked to wear their everyday clothes...and it feels like they just pulled up to some random house in the LA suburbs and asked if they could film there. It feels decidedly "TV movie" in scale...but now, with 35 years of history between the film and today...it also feels authentic in its way.
This cultural fascination aside, the film also offers a perfectly simple and silly story. Frank & Lenore Davis (John Ryan and Sharon Farrell) are a near middle-age, middle class couple with a 12 year old son. The film literally begins with a pregnant Lenore waking up in the middle of the night to announce "it's time." The couple get up, get dressed, make arrangements for their son, and head to the hospital. Lenore remarks a couple of times that things "don't feel the same this time" in reference to her pregnancy. Otherwise, the first 15 minutes of the film is almost irredeemably mundane. We see Frank pacing around in the father's waiting room. We see Lenore wheeled into delivery. Just as your eyelids begin to droop, a scream breaks out from down the hall.
A "baby" of some sort has been born, but this is a baby capable of killing the 5 doctors & nurses who attended its birth. It's also capable of escaping the hospital on its own. Throughout the film, we get only the briefest glimpse of this little monster, just before it leaps onto the throat of an unsuspecting person.
But much of the film is really about the reaction of the parents to their monster. It is assumed by the authorities that the beast will simply be killed. Frank is all for this idea...he constantly insists that this baby "isn't mine." Lenore, who understandably is a little nuts at this point from the sedatives and her own dismay at giving birth to a serial killer, mostly wanders around her house in a nightgown, saying weird things to her husband, such as suggesting they "try again" to have a baby.
Eventually, the baby finds its way home, and the dynamics of the movie actually take on a few surprising twists that I won't reveal. It's not exactly earth-shaking stuff...but it does show that creator Cohen was actually interested in making some sort of psychological or sociological point.
Early in the film, one of the waiting fathers talks about how the smog in LA is so bad, and how many bad things are in the air. Later, Frank tells a detective that he and his wife had considered an abortion early on, and he says "Doesn't everyone talk about it these days?" And Frank also has to deal with a hostile press and a smarmy boss who shows sympathy on one hand, yet maneuvers Frank out of his job on another. I say all this as my way of stating that Cohen appeared to be making an attempt to comment on the baby/creature as an non-surprising "offspring" of our society.
In no way is the point made successfully, but I have to reluctantly give the movie some credit for trying to inject some brains into what is mostly a laughably simplistic horror tale.
Most of the performances are substandard. No one is particularly horrible, but no one convinces either. The lead detective feels nothing like a cop. A researcher does not come across like a scientist at all. Frank's boss is a playboy wanna-be who doesn't feel like a guy who has ever spent a single day in an office. Etc. etc. (Particularly laughable are all the extras playing uniformed policeman...walking around slowly in stony silence, shining flashlights everywhere without actually looking at what the light beams reveal.)
In the midst of all this is the performance of John Ryan. He was a character actor that showed up a lot in cheapie flicks like this in the 70s and `80s. (He was actually quite effective as the insane warden in RUNAWAY TRAIN.) This part was a rare lead role for him. And he clearly relished it, and he gives a performance that sort of dances to its own tune, if you will. He infuses Frank with anguished subtext that is never quite coherent. You can FEEL Ryan working to give a great performance, even though his skills as an actor were not up to the task. There are flashes of total conviction, followed by scenes in which he mostly stares off into the distance with bug eyes. His Frank seems to be teetering on insanity...but honestly, it almost feels that way BEFORE the baby is born.
This movie is actually rated PG (I guess it would have been "GP" back in the day)...and the violence is quite mild by today's standards. Heck, even the blood is a totally unconvincing light red. There is not one single genuine moment of fright...but there are a few modestly creepy moments. And there are just enough surprises, and just enough fascination with the look of 1974 to make IT'S ALIVE worth a look. Kids and teens of today will be bored right out of their minds...but if you lived during this time and have clear memories of it, I think you might actually be passingly amused. 2.5 stars