It’s Alive
Sony
R4 DVD
Larry
Cohen was a strange and wonderful filmmaker and one of his more unusual
cinematic creations was the 1974 It’s Alive. It is
a film which became a cult classic and is still treasured by those who enjoy
genre cinema today. In many ways Cohen’s films work well so because they are
such products of the Seventies, they combine such a true of the bizarre with
horror and cult elements. The remake has been made by Josef Rusnak
who having made such films as The
Thirteenth Floor (1999) does not necessarily have the cult cred to make it
work.
Lenore
Harker is in college and pregnant. She is working
hard on her degree in literature but when an attempt at abortion via medication
goes wrong she decides to keep the baby and move other of town with the kids dad father, Frank. The house is a rather nice “Mexican
style” villa overlooking a forest and lake. They live there with Frank’s
disabled brother Chris, it seems their parents died
some years before.
As
Lenore settles in and Frank puts the finishing touches to the baby’s room, she
seems to go into labour – strange considering she is only six months pregnant.
Rushing to hospital the doctor advises that the baby has grown to a very large
size and must be immediately born via caesarean section. This is where the gore
and guts begins and really doesn’t stop. The baby is cut out of its mother’s
womb and then tears the doctor and nurses to pieces. This is the beginning of
Daniel’s reign of terror.
When
they bring him home he seems to grow at a very fast pace and takes a liking to
killing and eating small rats, birds and animals. An unnatural bond seems to
develop between Leonore and Daniel, nothing else
matters anymore at all. Certainly Cohen and Rusnak
capture the sense of parental obsession and it is depicted in a way that is
very disquieting. In many ways this is the only real character development in
the whole film, every else is pretty two dimensional.
As
the police begin to suspect Leonore Daniel just
happily despatches those he sees as a threat. He is a child with simple
intelligent but extreme strength and uncontrolled violence. When Marnie drops in to check on Leonore
and discuss why she is throwing away her degree both her
and her boyfriend are quietly despatched. Soon after comes the police
psychologist leading towards the final showdown.
This
is certainly a gore hidden horror with only a limited amount of nuance. While
total obsession of Leonore with her child is nicely
explored, the rest of the film is simply psycho baby madness. I also think the
film is a little letdown by bad CGI, the baby isn’t too bad but the fire at the
end needs a lot more work. While this is an amusing horror film with a nice
warning about the dangers of childbirth (!!!), it certainly does not come close
to the original.
(U.K
R2 Cover shown)
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