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It’s Alive
Frankenstein yells this line at the top of
his voice when he gives life to an incomprehensibly grotesque monster –
a creation that is driven by an ambiguous mix of genius and insanity.
Fittingly, this very line is the title of a monstrous film that should
never have been brought back to life from Larry Cohen’s 1974 original,
It’s Alive. In this case, the remake’s creation is driven by a clear mix
of idiocy and just really, really poor judgement.
A young couple, Lenore (Bijou Phillips) and Frank (James Murray), expect
a bouncing baby boy. What they don’t expect, is a premature birth and a
bloody massacre to take place in the very operating room in which Lenore
has her caesarean. While the police can’t even guess what might have
happened in the hospital, Lenore and Frank take their newborn baby,
Daniel, to his new isolated home in Larkspur so that he can become
acquainted with the small creatures of the forest and eat their guts
out. This craving for flesh and blood grows increasingly stronger until
it begins to consume Lenore’s life. And her friends.
With a story as ridiculous as this, it’s difficult to take anything
seriously in It’s Alive. Horror becomes comedy, suspense is turned into
a dulled sense of expectation for the predictable, and no amount of
blood and gore can conceal the unconvincing logic used by the film to
explain the baby’s evil nature. Surely, a baby capable of eating
fully-grown humans must have been spawned by Satan himself. And if this
was the case, we could blame Satan for endowing baby Daniel with such a
misshapen and unconvincing CGI form. Such disappointing artificiality
never took on such an evil form.
Nevertheless, the film’s visual direction and editing is markedly better
than the quality of the story and baby Daniel’s face. Relying on shock
value and speedy flashbacks, director Josef Rusnak paces the film with
the appropriate amount of climactic build ups, horrific reveals and
misleadingly calmer moments through the use of sound effects intended to
make you jump in your seat, and a naturally sharp contrast between slow,
still shots and fast-paced flashes of blood-dripping horror. Point of
view shots are also used mercilessly from peering into the crib with
baited breath, to seeing through the eyes of the devil-baby himself,
heaving in asthmatic breaths while he watches his victims. Having said
that, Rusnak’s style of direction and the way in which the film’s events
progress don’t necessarily stand out as anything original, but merely
something that is bearable to watch.
In the end, it is the outdated concept of a people-eating baby killer
that makes the film intellectually insulting and unenjoyable. Due to the
numerous issues of logic that take murderous bites out of the film’s
credibility, Rusnak’s competent direction and potentially frightening
moments are rendered comical and amusing. Lacking in originality and
quality, the unsatisfying explanations, underwhelming responses to
chewed up bodies and easily resolved horrors will make you wish It’s
Alive wasn’t
alive.
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