SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

LeonLouisRicci An Important Entry in the Seventies Low-Budget Horror Category, This Tale of a "Monster" Baby has Gained Cult Status Justifiably. It has Enough Wit to Set "It" Apart from the Usual Mindless Movies of "Its" Clan.Writer/Director/Producer Larry Cohen, Still Working in the Modern Era Got His Start With This Surprising Hit and Never Looked Back. The Script is the Film's Strongest Suit Although the Visual Style, Musical Score (Bernard Herrmann), and Overall Production are Above Average.Taking Cues from Val Lewton, the Frankenstein Story, and the Then Current Trend of Environmental Concern, Pharmaceutical Corruption, and Other Topical Subjects of its Time, the Film is Loaded with Cerebral Conceits and Overall "It's" a Winner.Some Horror Fans of Today will Undoubtedly Complain About the Lack of Visual Slaughter, but that's a Time Stamped, Ill Conceived, Flaw in Thinking and Only Reflects a Myopic Misunderstanding of the Times and Changing Styles and Limitations.The Acting from Both Leads is Way Above Average for This Type of Thing and the Performances from John Ryan and Sharon Farrell are Heartfelt and Commendable.Overall, Worth a Watch Certainly for Thinking Horror Movie Fans and Must Viewing for Larry Cohen Cultists.

Sandcooler For a movie about a killer mutant freak child, this is pretty goddamn boring. Though the premise seems very fun and interesting, the execution is about as stale and disappointing as movies get. To me, the most bothersome thing about this horror flick was that there was just no suspense at all. Just, none. Okay, not entirely true, the milkman scene was pretty effective, but that's about one minute of the movie. All the rest is kind of a chore to sit through really, the charm of characters we've barely seen before and barely care about getting killed off-screen kinda escapes me. Even compared with the rather similar and also quite flawed "Basket Case", this just doesn't hold up. At least "Basket Case" had a cool puppet and some hilarious state-of-the-art stop motion effects, this one just has an okayish puppet and no effects. I just couldn't get into this movie at all, though I must admit the climax well, wasn't as bad as the rest I guess. I also liked the lead actor, who's about the only thing that made me keep watching. Good idea, weak movie, that about sums it up for me.

Michael O'Keefe Larry Cohen writes and directs this quirky almost comical low-budget horror flick. Suburmanites Frank(John Ryan)and Lenore(Sharon Farrell)are expecting their second child. The birth is far from natural...extraordinary and murderous. A fanged mutant baby goes on a homicidal rampage. Determined to destroy the spawn, Frank joins in the city-wide hunt for the illusive monster-child. Lenore still in shock believes her baby is normal and Frank begins having thoughts of defending it from the heavily armed task-force. Some images are disturbing. but the actual violence is left to the imagination. Also in the cast: James Dixon, Andrew Duggan, Michael Ansara and Guy Stockwell.

MBunge As a horror movie, It's Alive is fairly terrible. As a look at environmental and reproductive attitudes in the 1970s, it's somewhat interesting. As an expression of the concept of social norms, it's bewildering.Frank and Lenore Davis (John Ryan and Sharon Farrel) are having a second child. One night, Lenore says "it's time" and they head to the hospital, though they're both so calm and unhurried you'd think they were going for brunch somewhere. Lenore has her baby, who turns out to be a three-fingered killer mutant who slides out of the birth canal and slaughters all the doctors and nurses before escaping from the delivery room. Now, you'd think this would be kind of a big deal, but everyone in this movie acts as though killer mutant babies are an expected though unfortunate occurrence. Watching this film I imagined a conversation like this…"Hey, Frank! You hear about that mutant baby that killed 5 people last week?""Really? That's more than the giant lizard ate last month.""Yeah, but it's not as many people as that gelatinous blob from Mars disintegrated last October."As the cops search for the monster infant, Frank and Lenore return home. Oddly, their biggest concern isn't something being wrong with them or with their other child, Chris (Daniel Holzman). No, they're mostly vexed by the social stigma and personal shame of being the parents of a killer mutant baby. At one point, it's compared to being the parent of a retarded child. Yes, apparently in the 1970s you could compare mentally challenged kids to murderous creatures and no one made a big deal about it.Somehow, the killer mutant baby makes its way back to its parents, where Lenore wants to protect it and Frank feels responsible for destroying it himself as a way to prove to everyone that he and his family are normal. Frank and the cops pursue the monster infant into the storm sewers of Los Angeles, where we find out the sewer tunnels are big enough to drive police cars through. That leads to a conclusion where I think we're supposed to learn something about parental love in the face of societal pressure, but what we really learn is that people are irrational when it comes to their own children.There's very little actual violence in It's Alive. Almost all of it happens off screen or behind a bush or something, where you hear a scream and then see blood or a body. It's probably for the best because this is a really cheap movie and the mutant baby looks like a pretty crappy special effect, even by 1970s standards. The movie is mostly just watching Frank looking stunned and Lenore becoming more and more unbalanced.I remember this film from when I was a kid. I don't know if it was much a hit, but I do recall it made something of an impression. It's Alive is an example of a bad movie that comes out at just the right moment to connect with cultural unease and anxiety. In the wake of Roe v. Wade and the Thalidomide cases of the 50s and 60s, this story did freak people a little bit. It has no cultural resonance today so, unless you enjoy looking at ugly 70s fashions (like wearing a plaid jacket with high-waisted Sansabelt slacks), there's not much to recommend about it.