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It's Alive

Play trailer Poster for It's Alive PG Released Apr 26, 1974 1h 31m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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65% Tomatometer 23 Reviews 41% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
Leaving their son, Chris (Daniel Holzman), with a family friend (William Wellman Jr.), Frank (John P. Ryan) and Lenore Davis (Sharon Farrell) head to the hospital for the birth of their second child -- which turns out to be a mutant who kills many doctors and nurses as it escapes. Convinced his monstrous son must be destroyed, Frank ignores Lenore and Chris' pleas and tries to destroy the freakish progeny, unaware that the infant may be the blameless product of an experimental drug gone wrong.
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Critics Consensus

Tough and unpleasant, It's Alive throttles the viewer with its bizarre mutant baby theatrics.

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Critics Reviews

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David Robinson The Times (UK) The film is too crudely cobbled together to make much of anything -- even a score by Bernard Herrman. Jun 27, 2023 Full Review Kim Newman Empire Magazine Larry Cohen's horror thriller is at once a great suspense/monster film and a darkly comic soap opera about strained parent-child relationships. Rated: 4/5 May 24, 2019 Full Review Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness A deeply terrifying portrait of child-parent relationships and intolerant fears of "otherness" defined as much by its sociological sharpness as its gore. Rated: A Jan 26, 2006 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy It skews on the amateurish side, with an intriguing premise compromised by bland characters, awkward dialogue, and lurching scenes. Rated: 2/4 Aug 29, 2021 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com It's Alive goes from foreboding conversations about pollution to full tilt nightmare rather quickly. Rated: 3.5/5 Aug 25, 2020 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews ...the picture slowly-but-surely loses its grip on the viewer as it progresses into an often unbearably meandering midsection... Rated: 1/4 Aug 11, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Nick O This weirdo Larry Cohen monster flick makes The Omen and Rosemary's Baby look like adorable little sweethearts. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/24/25 Full Review Shawn R it's a good movie, but scared the living daylights out of me when I was six years old, when it first came out, it was the trailer for it that terrified me. Never saw the movie until I was in my teens lol Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/14/25 Full Review acsdoug D So bad it's good? Nope, not in my book, just a bad 70s horror movie with an incredibly intrusive score. John P. Ryan, who was so good in Runaway Train, is about as emotive as a log in this one. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/24 Full Review Jay H Neat premise, but this movie gets old real fast. A lot of the editing is very poorly done. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/18/24 Full Review Steve D Too ridiculous and self serious to be taken seriously. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/08/23 Full Review desmond b There are lots of movies about kids that grow up bad (e.g. The Omen) or get taken over by something bad (e.g. The Exorcist) but Cohen had the revolutionary idea to make a film about a newborn baby who was bad from birth. Straight from the womb to the killing fields. We all have a savage, cannibalistic baby buried in our unconscious. This is why we're scared of small things – mice, grasshoppers, cockroaches. And Cohen's genius was to take the smallest, most innocent being we know, a tiny baby, and make him the monster from our id. My complete review is at https://thecannibalguy.com/2022/05/22/cannibal-baby-its-alive-larry-cohen-1974/ Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
It's Alive

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Cast & Crew

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Larry Cohen

Director

John P. Ryan

Frank Davies

Sharon Farrell

Lenore Davies

Andrew Duggan

The Professor

Guy Stockwell

Bob Clayton

James Dixon

Lieutenant Perkins

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It's Alive

It's Alive! (1974) It's Alive! (1974) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Leaving their son, Chris (Daniel Holzman), with a family friend (William Wellman Jr.), Frank (John P. Ryan) and Lenore Davis (Sharon Farrell) head to the hospital for the birth of their second child -- which turns out to be a mutant who kills many doctors and nurses as it escapes. Convinced his monstrous son must be destroyed, Frank ignores Lenore and Chris' pleas and tries to destroy the freakish progeny, unaware that the infant may be the blameless product of an experimental drug gone wrong.
Director
Larry Cohen
Producer
Larry Cohen
Screenwriter
Larry Cohen
Distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co
Warner Brothers
Rating
PG
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 26, 1974, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 19, 2016
Runtime
1h 31m
Sound Mix
Mono
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)
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