It's Alive (1974)

 

I'm always amused at how all these critics jump to trash Larry Cohen's killer baby B-movie, calling it camp...I think even Siskel called it "imbecilic". And to just completely see past the outstanding work from Ryan and Farrell as the unfortunate parents of a killer baby (designed by master makeup artist Baker, before he really honed his talents and became a legend) because Cohen's screenplay does emphasize the savagery left in the monster baby's wake is rather tragic to me. But, nonetheless, the work of Ryan and Farrell deserves so much better than the film's scathing rebuke of the film would have you realize. Ryan's tortured, so tortured that when he talks with his PR firm boss about work, he admits he doesn't know how to address those who stick a mic in his face or what answers to give them about the baby that fled his wife's womb and left behind a bloody carnage in the delivery room where the doctors and staff were killed. Losing his job (his boss orchestrates quite a friendly exit before telling his secretary to clear Ryan's desk and office, using his charm and smile to manipulate Ryan into a false sense of security, bringing up three weeks vacation and all that), Ryan is then approached by two doctors about allowing the monster baby to be used for research to determine why it was born as it was, with forms to sign. Farrell, so traumatized (when she's found in the delivery room, her legs are still up with all these bloodied bodies strewn about), she tries to carry on, offering the doctors a dinner and wine, her face and mood so close to hysterics there is an obvious slender thread between sanity and total breakdown. There is this conversation about Frankenstein with Ryan mentioning how he associated the name with the monster but then learned in school after reading the book that it was the scientist who created the monster that was Frankenstein...and you can tell the doctors who were behind Farrell taking certain medication from a pharmaceutical company wanted nothing to do with that conversation. Later the film does establish that it was the meds that were responsible for the genetic mutation that turns into monster baby.

It seems those who hate this film or were so critical of it in the 70s fail to see some fascinating subject matter. Farrell is the "mother of a monster" and her performance as a near wreck barely holding it together deserves more recognition as does Ryan for how his father struggles with the ramifications of the creature's rampage. While Ryan continues to view the baby as a monster, Farrell still sees "it" as a child. She loves the child while Ryan is convinced that it must die. She would fight to protect it, while Ryan is sure that it is a serious threat to the public at large. Farrell doesn't see the baby as some grotesque thing that deserves immediate execution. Ryan and Farrell's son returns home after some time with a family friend (William Wellman, Jr.), promising to protect the baby, also. Even though Ryan shoots the baby, Wellman, Jr. arrives at the worst time, adding himself to the monster's body count, another ripped-throat victim...the baby literally goes for the jugular.

You know the Bernard Herrmann score feels very television drama, which I think actually fits Cohen's matter-of-fact style, never longing to be or striving for something as cinematic...very plainclothes instead of uniform. In fact that on-the-move, oft-documentary approach--I'd even say this ugly instead of elegant look gives the film a rugged authenticity--to me is why it is so damned effective. But the 70s as a whole brought plenty of these drab, workman-like products, eschewing anything eye-popping, instead opting for a rough-around-the-edges, point-the-camera-where-is-needed technique (or follow the action where it takes us). Cohen was never noted for anything flashy or attractive; his compositions aren't studied in film school. But he takes you where he needs you in his films. And his subject matter is never boring. But in the case of It's Alive (1974), there is much more than just monster-baby-on-the-rampage campiness. Don't tell me that moment in the sewers when Ryan finds the injured--bleeding baby ahead of the police, talks to it, realizes that *he* is his child, and decides to put a garment around it--looking up with tears streaming on his agonizing face, is inconsequential or  undeserved of critical re-evaluation. Farrell seeing that Ryan actually does care for the baby and wants to keep it from behing killed as the police points guns his direction, her love and appreciation on her face, is also a great moment of acting. The film really does get that point across: their pain, how the media circus has put a spotlight on them, and their whole plans for raising another child (before going to the hospital to have the child, they take a joyful look into the baby's room) terminated are realized. Yes, there is a monster baby, but Farrell and Ryan didn't wink at you or fail to take the material seriously...I think because they took their roles seriously, the film benefits from us recognizing that parental torment. It's all the better for it because Cohen had legitimate actors to work with. The film isn't shot for laughs, either. I didn't leave this film in good spirits. It was tragic. I think the film gets a bad rep because critics just couldn't get past the monster baby. Their loss. 4/5

*There is a despicable nurse trying to record coerced reaction to what the baby is doing and how she feels about it. The depths some will go to get some easy cash is provided here. This is again a reason to notice how on point Cohen was with his screenplay.

**When Ryan, feeling so guilty about what his baby has done since fleeing the hospital massacre, keeps apologizing to a detective (whose own wife is pregnant), the cop responds that he has no reason to do so. It is a really human moment and Cohen puts the camera right into the faces having the conversation. This film deserves another look by those willing to give it a chance.

***Cohen does give us a little bit of satisfaction when Ryan tosses the baby at Farrell's doctor, with the creature going right for his jugular as the police open fire. Earlier, the doctor had talks with a big pharmaceutical rep about a lofty position if he makes sure the baby is totally destroyed.

****Ryan does a great Walter Brennan impression while driving his son to Wellman's house with his wife ready to have the child. There is just so much elation and excitement about the new arrival, when it all spirals downward, it gives us all the more reason to sympathize.