It's Alive (2008)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

An ambitious remake of Larry Cohen's 1974 killer baby classic. An attractive grad student Lenore(Bijou Phillips)puts her education on hold to have a baby with her architect boyfriend Frank(James Murray). Plans of a beautiful life in a secluded country atmosphere is not going to stand a chance when Lenore has her baby by emergency C-section. Not exactly a bundle of joy; but a natural born killer...an abomination craving to be fed. Lenore knows her baby is prone to savage attacks, but just can't tell her husband of their baby's murderous impulses. A few chills and a couple of squirms in store; but you hardly get to see the monster baby...just what is left over from his ravaging appetite . Others in the cast: Owen Teale, Jack Ellis, Ty Glaser and Raphael Coleman. Little baby Daniel is an unholy terror.

It's Alive is set in New Mexico where college student Lenore Harker (Bijou Phillips) & her boyfriend Frank Davis (James Murray) are expecting a baby boy, while taking a shower Lenore feels labour pains & know's that she is going to give birth. Frank rushes her to the hospital where Lenore is taken into the delivery room, some time later an orderly enters the delivery room & finds four of the medical team dead having been brutally torn to pieces while Lenore & her baby boy seem unhurt. The cops have no clues & Sergeant Perkins (Owen Teale) has no leads except Lenore who was under anaesthetic at the time, Lenore & Frank with their newborn baby son Daniel are allowed to go home but there's something not quite right with the young baby. Lenore finds Daniel eating dead animals & when she finds a dead body torn to pieces Lenore know's there's only one explanation but how could a young baby boy be a vicious killer...Directed by Josef Rusnak this is a remake of the Larry Cohen written, produced & directed horror film It's Alive (1974) which was a considerable success at the time of release & spawned two sequels of it's own as well as this remake which Cohen himself co-wrote. I personally have no problems with remakes at all, the original film still exists so I don't see any issue whatsoever, while the original It's Alive was a good solid horror film that had a little bit of wit, black humour & intelligence the It's Alive remake is more bland but I did still quite like it for what it was. Predictable to appease to the teen horror film crowd the mother & father in this remake are pretty young teens rather than grown adults as in the original but you could say that the script deals with the pressures & problems of young parents which is a much, much bigger issue now in 2010 than it was back in 1974 so in a way the script has just been adjusted for a new generation & a new society where it's actually very relevant, issues of blind maternal love, abortion, premature birth & the emotional effects of caring for a newborn baby are touched upon but are never gone into with any great depth or intelligence. At only 80 minutes long It's Alive is short, very short & not that much happens really although it does have a few nice moments & the somewhat downbeat choice of ending was surprising although also welcome. The first twenty five minutes follows the original quite closely as a woman gives birth to a mutant baby that kills the medical team but instead of having the baby go on the run & being hunted down the mother tries to protect it & cover up for it's crimes in a decent twist on the original, having said that surely anyone finding their newborn baby eating dead animals & killing people would have a hard time loving it & protecting like Lenore does here.Available in both 'R' rated & 'Unrated' versions I saw the Unrated cut which is gorier than than the original with better effects & attack scenes, slashed dead bodies are seen, severed limbs are shown, someone is ripped in half, there's lots of blood splatter & someone gets a tiny baby claw fist punched through their head. There's a bit of nudity as well, while being breast fed Damien bites his mother's nipple & draw's blood in another glaring sign something was wrong that Lenore chose to ignore. Surprisingly the mutant baby effects are extremely restrained & there's only ever one shot of it during the entire film, strangely there are no scenes of Daniel as a normal baby either as he is kept off screen for virtually the whole film. Don't let anyone tell you the original three It's Alive films are classic either, they are not with It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) easily the worst out of the four films, I should know I have now watched all four It's Alive films in the space of four days (yeah, my head hurts just thinking about it).Filmed in Bulgaria the IMDb says It's Alive had a $10,000,000 budget which I don't believe for a second, there's no way this cost that much & if did have a budget that big it wouldn't have been shot in Bulgaria. The acting varies, the main cast do alright with Bijou Phillips quite good as the mother.It's Alive the remake is a decent little horror film in it's own right actually, don't let anyone fool you that the original is some untouchable classic because it's not although I would still say it's a bit better than this remake overall. A good pace, nicely shot, there's some good gore & virtually no CGI computer effects work means It's Alive the remake actually turned out better than I had expected.

"It's Alive" is a remake of the 70's classic by Larry Cohen (which was executive producer on this one). It even spawned 2 more sequels, "It Lives Again" and "Island Of The Alive". I saw those movies once and curious what the remake would be like. Well it is bad, really bad. It starts of great with a massacre during the birth (although it is not actually shown) but the story goes rapidly downhill from than on. It also makes no sense at all, especially the actions of the mother after she discovers that there is something seriously evil about her baby. (the baby kills a pigeon and she acts like the whole thing didn't happen and is supposed to be normal ??) The killings are rather stupid, there is even a laughably CGI effect of the baby's little arm crushing to a victim's head. Very cheaply done. The baby is not really shown (very little budget on special effects). Maybe they tried it but it was so bad that they actually cut it out before theatrical release. I saw the so-called UNRATED version, no idea what had to be cut out for the theatrical version. Could not have been much...

I found "It's Alive" to be an effective and rather gory tale of a woman who gives birth to a monster of a baby that has an appetite for flesh and blood.I'll admit that I have not seen the 1974 original movie that goes by the same name and was directed by Larry Cohen.Instead, a friend and I watched this remake and we both agree that this was a good horror film.The death scenes of the movie are fast-paced and violent, the baby is a satanic monster, and the mother knows about the baby but refuses to tell anyone.What more could you people want? I mean really, a 3.8? I was not in any way disappointed by this movie.It's no contender for a best picture nomination, but it's good entertainment that only some people don't claim it to be.If I had a problem with the movie, it would be the ending.I thought the ending of "The Stepfather" was bad, but this one was something else.But I am giving a recommendation for "It's Alive" and I hope that the reviews that come in after mine are mostly positive.7.5/10