"It's Alive!" shows veteran low-budget filmmaker Larry Cohen at his most creative and perceptive: under the sheen of what is, at heart, a throwback to 1950s-style 'big bug' pictures (complete with a monster who travels via underground sewer tunnels, just like the ants in "Them!") is a movie with a little more on its mind than the requisite suspense and shocks of the horror genre. Ironically using Colin Clive's famous declaration in "Frankenstein" for the title, Cohen spins the tale of a mother who gives birth to a bloodthirsty mutant and the father who wants it destroyed. By the time the somewhat frustrating climax comes around (what the hell was THAT?), Cohen has delivered ample scares and provided a biting comment on man's selfishness and how the conditions we create (in the form of pesticides, birth control, and a polluted environment) can bite back if so provoked. He also gives an effective portrait of familial conflict and the justification behind the destruction of life (though, with a modest body count, "It's Alive!" could hardly be classified as a pro-life diatribe).
Review of It's Alive
