audiohead22
I was too young to see this when it came out but vividly remember the ads and was very intrigued at the time. I'm so glad it was R-Rated and had to wait to see it. It's one of the worst horror movies ever! The acting was truly awful. The story is pathetic in every way, from the characters, to the plot development and especially the thrill factor. There's zero suspense, very little gore and even the attack scenes didn't raise my pulse one beat. It also completely lacked the proper amount of "cheese" for a good 'B' Film. Don't waste the 91 minutes of your life on this piece of junk. There are absolutely no redeeming qualities about this movie whatsoever!
Wizard-8
Although "It's Alive" was a respectable hit at the box office back in 1974, I think that most people who watch it today will be puzzled as to why the movie was so popular at the time. The low budget hurts the movie in a number of ways - the sound is often poorly recorded, the sets and locations often look cheap and unconvincing, and scenes seem to be missing. Such things might have been forgiven had the rest of the movie been stronger, but the movie also suffers from a very slow pace, too much dialogue, and too little in the way of horror (the movie only got a PG rating.) On the positive side, there is some witty dialogue as well as some effective black humor. There is also some good social satire, as well as some surprisingly powerful dramatic sequences. So the movie is not a complete waste. However, I would only recommend it to die hard horror fans as well as those interested in the varied film career of writer/director Larry Cohen. Hopefully things will improve when I watch the two sequels.
byrann_gowan
But, it's not the worst.This film is about a husband and wife who give birth to their second child. Unfortunately for them, the baby is a mutant, and they must do all they can to kill it.Simple enough, but there were enough elements in it that kept me interested. For example, throughout most of the film, the baby is kept mostly in the shadows, which I think is a very effective portrait of the baby. It works, and it makes the baby even more creepy when we do see it in full light.Unfortunately, there were some flaws, but the main one that I had was that the acting could have been much better. That being said, it is still better than most acting in horror movies today, where the hot females chicks only say stuff like "Oh my God! Ahhhhhhhhh!" So, it could have been better, but it could have been worse as well.All in all, a decent enough horror film. However, do not go in expecting something like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Jaws, because this is in no way as good as those two, or any other movies along that line. Just go in expecting to be thrilled, and leave your brain at the door. 7/10 for me.
Sandcooler
For a movie about a killer mutant freak child, this is pretty goddamn boring. Though the premise seems very fun and interesting, the execution is about as stale and disappointing as movies get. To me, the most bothersome thing about this horror flick was that there was just no suspense at all. Just, none. Okay, not entirely true, the milkman scene was pretty effective, but that's about one minute of the movie. All the rest is kind of a chore to sit through really, the charm of characters we've barely seen before and barely care about getting killed off-screen kinda escapes me. Even compared with the rather similar and also quite flawed "Basket Case", this just doesn't hold up. At least "Basket Case" had a cool puppet and some hilarious state-of-the-art stop motion effects, this one just has an okayish puppet and no effects. I just couldn't get into this movie at all, though I must admit the climax well, wasn't as bad as the rest I guess. I also liked the lead actor, who's about the only thing that made me keep watching. Good idea, weak movie, that about sums it up for me.
AD
