Review of It's Alive (1974) by Sean C — 19 May 2008

There's something I really like about Larry Cohen's movies. The premise on paper always sounds like the movie will be awful or campy, but somehow, he pulls it off. The idea of a mutant baby running around the city killing people sounds so stupid, but he makes it creepy, clever, and dramatic.

I think the key is that we never really see the baby. We only catch glimpses of it and that's better. It would be schlocky if we kept seeing it and it would lose its effect (kind of like the sequel).

I love the score by Bernard Hermann. When Larry Cohen asked Rick Baker to create the baby, I've heard he said he wanted it to look like the star child at the end of 2001, but with fangs and claws.