Search - It's Alive on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language, Gore Movie Release: 1974 DVD Release: 10/05/2004 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 31 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 0 Genres: Horror, Thriller, Creature Film

Horror journeyman Larry Cohen, writer and director of numerous quirky horror projects, made his first foray into the genre with this low-budget cult favorite about a murderous mutant baby on a suburban rampage. The story opens with a delivery-room massacre as the newborn child of Frank and Lenore Davies (John P. Ryan and Sharon Farrell) answers the doctor's slap by tearing him to pieces -- along with a few other medical personnel -- before fleeing the hospital for whereabouts unknown. The subsequent hunt for the killer baby creates a rift between Frank, who wants the child destroyed, and Lenore, whose maternal instincts convince her that her child is not deliberately homicidal but merely frightened and defending itself. The baby's bloody rampage continues with several murders (including the creepy scene in which the terrible tyke savages the neighborhood milkman), until it is cornered by Frank and a police task-force. At the crucial moment, Frank has a sudden change of heart and tries to defend the infant from the police. Despite painfully low production values that render the monster scenes a bit silly (Rick Baker's creepy-looking but inarticulate baby model was simply pulled along on a string), Cohen's concept shines through, presenting a skewed but sincere interpretation of family values that could only be pulled off in the horror genre (see also Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes for another example). The script makes passing suggestions that the mutation was a result of an inadequately tested fertility drug, a concept explored more fully in the sequel It Lives Again and quite extensively in the third installment, Island of the Alive. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

John Ryan - Frank Davies
Sharon Farrell - Lenore Davies
Andrew Duggan - The Professor
Guy Stockwell - Clayton
James Dixon - Lt. Perkins

For fans of filmmaker Larry Cohen, the pesky, demonic It's Alive! babies couldn't arrive on DVD soon enough. Now, thanks to Warner Bros. Home Video, the cult classic can scare an entirely new generation of viewers. The feature is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and, as Cohen himself states on the soundtrack, looks absolutely gorgeous. Of course, It's Alive! was a fairly low-budget film, but aside from some minor grain, the image is virtually flawless -- highlighted by vivid colors and free of any notable debris or digital artifacting. Likewise, the English Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack is clean and evenly balanced. Anyone who has followed Cohen's long and varied career knows that the frequent writer/director has a way with a budget, and in an audio commentary he reveals his practicality by discussing the easy creation of the spooky title sequence, his view on sets, and the fact that he uses his house for many shoots (including this one). The director is both affable and informative, and even manages to point out a few fun flaws with the feature (keep a close eye on the blanket that Frank [John Ryan] is holding in the climactic face-off with the police) that may otherwise go unnoticed by the casual viewer. Trailers for the two sequels are also included. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide