Expectant mother Lenore awakens her husband, Frank, early in the morning. The excited couple gather their things and head to the hospital. Already with child, Frank is relaxed and confident. He even calms down another father-to-be, agitated with the cigarette and gumball machines. This all changes, however, when Frank witnesses one of the doctors, bloody, staggering out of the maternity ward and subsequently collapsing.So begins Larry Cohen's 1974 horror flick, It's Alive. Cohen began his career as a TV writer, even creating the cult sci-fi series, The Invaders. After writing and directing a few blaxploitation films, including the popular Black Caesar (1973) with Fred Williamson, the filmmaker released his first movie of the horror persuasion. Cohen created dynamic characters in his movies and could make them seem like real people who are often forced into seemingly impossible situations. He wonderfully captures the anxiety and excitement of a pregnant woman going into labor at the beginning of It's Alive. Even if a viewer has never had such an experience, he/she can relate to what these characters are feeling. This makes it so much more meaningful and intense when the couple learns that their baby is mutated, a vicious beast that attacks when threatened.
Another Cohen trademark is taking the absurd and presenting it with a straight face. Cohen's films are low budget B-productions, but rarely come across as hammy. They may be tongue-in-cheek, but the films typically do not feel like the director is insincere. In his movie, God Told Me To (aka Demon), released in 1976, a cop is investigating murders committed by random people, all of whom claim, "God told me to." The Stuff (1985) is about an otherworldly substance that people find irresistible and delicious, unaware that it's actually a parasitic entity (the film's tagline was "Are you eating it... or is it eating you?"). Cohen inserts these silly B-movie plots into a world the audience feels it knows, making his films more enjoyable and, in the case of It's Alive, more terrifying.
Never one to shy away from satire, Cohen targets the media in It's Alive. Following the baby's birth and initial assault on the doctors, the police scan the hospital for the monstrous infant. Before Frank can even make it home, he hears a report on the radio concerning the attack, and he and his wife are both named. The media becomes obsessed, and reporters constantly harass the couple, leading to Frank's dismissal from his job in public relations. Frank is even asked to allow scientists the opportunity to study the baby, should it be taken alive. This is the film's best scene, as Frank essentially explains the movie's title (obviously a line taken from the cinematic version of Frankenstein). He states that he thought Frankenstein was the monster and did not realize that it was the name of the doctor until he read the book. People mixed the identities of the creator and the monster, much like the paparazzi's fixation on the mutant baby but treating the parents as freaks. This concept is perhaps more horrifying than the film's monster.
Throughout the film, Cohen plays with the idea of a monster in the form of something innocent. The baby hides inside a milk truck, but prefers the milkman over the milk. It also takes refuge in a school, playing with toys and killing the police officers who believe they have it cornered. Somehow the baby makes it home in a terrific and suspenseful sequence, as Frank realizes that all the milk and packaged meat is missing from the house. The film ends with an inevitable confrontation, showcasing a marvelous performance by John P. Ryan as Frank. The movie avoids a typical horror film ending, with a feeling of relief or a final shock. It's bittersweet, almost as if it were a drama (which, in many respects, it is).
Unfortunately for pregnant couples, mutant babies continued being spawned in the sequels, It Lives Again (1978) and It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987), both written and directed by Cohen. A remake starring Bijou Phillips was recently made. It is set for release straight-to-DVD tomorrow, Oct. 6th.
