Le monstre est vivant

Director Larry Cohen creates a thoughtful script about the effects of our environment on our reproductive systems in this thoroughly predictable yet immensely entertaining film. A father and a mother expecting rush to the hospital to have their second child. The only snag is that when the baby comes out of the womb it has razor-sharp fangs and claws with which it kills every doctor and nurse in its reach before fleeing the scene. The special effects are nothing too special, particularly by today's standards, but the film is full of insights and revelations as to what may be someday as we abuse our environment and use chemicals to sustain life. The father has a conversation in the waiting room with other expecting fathers. This conversation covers the ill-effects of pesticides, drugs, and other additives we use in our daily lives. The film uses the baby as a means to move action. With a distorted camera lens, we see things in the world through the eyes of this mutated infant. Initially the father wants to kill his beastly progeny. The police want to pump it full of lead. The doctors and drug companies want it destroyed to negate any possible backlash. A university professor wants the carcass for study when captured. Cohen shows us the underbelly of humanity. The people surrounding this infant are often no better than the child. All they want is gain...and it matters not at whose cost. John Ryan plays the introspective dad and does a fine job with this rather difficult role. He plays an ad executive who begins seeing the good in things and then slowly sees only the stark horror of his own life, his family life, his job, and his child. The other actors all do credible jobs. Cohen obviously likes horror as he names the wife Lenore and has the father talk at length about the novel Frankenstein. The production values and budget are minimal, but the film has a lot of heart where it counts.

Expectant parents Frank (John P. Ryan) and Lenore (Sharon Farrell) get the shock of their lives when their new baby turns out to be a hideous mutant, one that kills whenever it feels threatened. Fleeing the hospital, having massacred the entire delivery room staff only seconds after its birth, the savage infant roams Los Angeles, hunted by the police and its own father.

Although writer/director Cohen's script flirts with ecological/medical issues, briefly suggesting that either pollution or untested drugs may be the cause of the mutation and questioning the morality of abortion, these interesting plot points are quickly pushed aside in favour of Frank's growing psychological turmoil and the mounting police search for the monstrous child.

The former is handled pretty well, John P. Ryan giving a commendable performance as the initially belligerent father who ultimately tries to save his new son, but the pursuit of the creature is very tedious—unimaginative, repetitive, and lacking in general outrageousness and gore, with effects genius Rick Baker's mutant baby frustratingly kept hidden in the shadows for the majority of the film.

"It's Alive!" were the famous words of Dr. Frankenstein when he brought his monster to life. There was a Frankenstein reference in the movie as well. In fact, the main character, Frank (John Ryan), made reference to the fact that everyone confuses the monster with being Frankenstein when in fact the scientist was Frankenstein. Now, Frank, as the father of a miniature killer, may be confused with the monstrosity that's running around killing people because he sired it.

"It's Alive" is so creepy but flawed. Deeply flawed. I think many horror movies are riddled with flaws. In this horror a carnivorous baby that's more akin to a vicious predator is on the loose in southern California. Right out of the womb it began its killing spree. Apparently it has been born with the full capabilities to kill, hunt, and escape. Oh yeah, it's stealthy, can open doors, and is about as fast as a cheetah. How about that for a newborn.

The pregnant Lenore Davis (Sharon Farrell) tells her husband Frank Davis (John Ryan) that she is in labor to have the baby. They leave their eleven year-old son Chris (Daniel Holzman) with their friend Charley (William Wellman Jr.) and they head to the Community Hospital. Lenore feels that something is wrong and delivers a monster that kills the team in the delivery room and escapes through a skylight. Lieutenant Perkins (James Dixon) comes to the hospital to investigate the murder and the press divulges the identity of the parents of the monster. Frank loses her job of executive in public relationship and accepts the offer of a university that wants to research the corpse of the baby to discover the reason for the mutation. Meanwhile the baby continues to kill people in town. Out of the blue, Frank discovers a dark secret about Lenore and the baby.

A couple of days ago I saw the awful remake of "It's Alive" and I decided to watch again the 1974 B-movie of Larry Cohen to reevaluate it in the present days. The original film is better and better than the lame remake of 2010. The analogy of Frank with Dr. Frankenstein is one of the good dialogs of this film. The madness process of Lenore Davis is more plausible than the ridiculous behavior of Lenore Harker of the new version. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Nasce um Monstro" ("A Monster is Born")

Note: On 25 March 2016, I saw this film again.

A fantastically focused and engaged socio-horror film from the last golden age of the 1970s. Anchored around a most committed and persuasive performance from John Ryan and Larry Cohen's empathetic and savvy direction, It's Alive might display some raggedness and lapses in style, but it more than makes up for this with searing intelligence, sharp and sad gallows humour and a beating heart on the side of the ostracized and ridiculed. A fine example of what genre movies can really do.