MovieChat Forums > It's Alive (1974) Discussion > It' Alive! fans - general discussion

It' Alive! fans - general discussion

posted 22 years ago by objectivist47
82 replies | jump to latest

Hi there!

Since nobody has started any threads here, I thought I would post the first "general discussion" subject...

I assume anyone here would see the absolute greatness in this film, regardless of the semi-pro production values and other oddities. It's Alive! (IA) is Cohen's greatest film, and perhaps his most creative writing (Best Seller would be a very close second)...

To get things rolling, how about some general discussion points:

(1) How old were you when you first saw IA? Any recollections of the viewing? Did it affect your life after that?
I was 6 or 7 when I saw the film, at a twin theatre :) BAD MISTAKE!
According to my parents, I practically demanded to be taken to the film!!! All I remember is being extremely scared and refusing to turn around to the screen (see #2 below). And, of course, being a great sibling, my sister insisted we stay for a second showing (yep, let's just pile on the trauma!). The movie affected me quite a bit. Like another viewer's comments stated, I was also certain the "baby" was hiding under the table at the head of my bed - those odd sounds in the middle of the night also made me worried! It took me a while before I could squarely look at the "baby" and not be frightened out of my wits. I know, extreme...but IA is definitely not a children's film.

(2) What do you believe are the most effective things in the film?
First and foremost, the music, the music, the music!!! Second, the absolutely blood-curdling, sickening scared/attacking baby sounds. Referring to the first question, I believe the music is what made me so very frightened to start out with, and is what has stayed with me through this very day. I think all of Bernard Herrmann's music is brilliant, and is one reason I became a musician. If the IA score does not have an effect on you, then you have no idea of what effective music is in the first place, IMO.
The "baby sounds" are incredible. Want to scare away a burglar, just use one of those attack sounds when the alarm is tripped! I recall reading that Rick Baker (and his wife) did the sounds...I would love to know more details if anyone has any!

(3) How about the acting?
It's truly a shame that a brilliant actor like John P. Ryan didn't become a huge star - he is truly one of the most, if not the most underrated American actor of the past 30 years. I cannot imagine one of the current big-time actors taking this role and making it so believable, and so passionate. I'll discuss the rest in the next post.

Hopefully, someone will follow up here and share their thoughts!

objectivist47

[–] charlyfett 18 years ago

Hi.
I'm from mexico and I am a fan of it's alive trilogy
I remember saw the movie when I was 10 years old and scare me pretty much.
the tittle in spanish I remember was "el monstruo vive(it's alive)"
"el monstruo vive de nuevo(it lives again) and I don't remember for the island of the alive.

I want to know why mcfarlene toys or neca toys they doesn't made an action figure of the mutant babys? I think this will be a great idea :)

C.G.

[–] RealPanteon 18 years ago

Hi!
I´m from México too (I don´t write in spanish for everyone could read this), and I´m a big It´s Alive fan, even this movie scares me like no other. I know there are no figures of the babies, but there are puppets; you can see them in this page I found some time ago:
http://www.upcominghorrormovies.com/shock/c6.php

And please, if anyone can let me know about where I can find more pics of the babies, I´ll be great; I found a page with plenty of stuff, even some of the babies but very fat; I still don´t get it, but I swear I saw them!

[–] SawFish77 18 years ago

I just bought the triple pack from Warner Bros and the revolving basinette trailer is STILL not included, anyone know where to find it?

[–] ColinHarvey 18 years ago

I am amazed that so many people say that trailer is not on the DVD and is so hard to find. I didn't know any other trailers were made for that movie; the one I saw almost 30 years ago as an 11-year-old is the only one I ever saw - and, as I said earlier, almost all the TV stations in my area (with the exception of PBS) ran the living HELL out of that trailer! Of course, it was in all the newspaper movie sections, usually larger than any other movie advert! In fact, I couldn't tell you what other movies were current at that time (even though one of them was the original release of "Star Wars," which I didn't see until December '77) because "IA" was EVERYWHERE! "IA" even overshadowed "STAR WARS"! I don't know if Larry Cohen and George Lucas have ever met, but if I were in such a meeting I would tell Mr Lucas that I didn't even NOTICE "SW" because of "IA"!

I even remember my dad and I driving through this little podunk town near where I lived that was barely big enough to have this little run-down cinema (where I would see "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" many years later) and said cinema was showing "IA"!

That blasted flick pops up in the oddest places even now...a few years ago when I was working a job that I had to get up at zero-dark-thirty for, I was channel-surfing before leaving for work, and I caught the last few minutes of "IA" on TBS (I think).

And just last night I saw the old VHS on sale at a truck stop for like $2.00!

[–] jockey1-1 18 years ago

i HEARD (A VERY RELIABLE SOURCE) THAT "IT'S ALIVE" IS JUST STARTING A RE-MAKE IN BULGARIA THIS MONTH. WOULD THIS BE # 3? aNYONE ELSE HAVE INFO ON THIS?

[–] ColinHarvey 18 years ago

I haven't heard any confirmation of this. The only remotely related thing I've heard is that a remake of one of the George Romero "Living Dead" movies is being remade in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is so very European (not to mention grey and drab in a lot of the major cities as a result of years of Communist rule) that I can't see how it would be possible to make it look like an American city...of course, unless the locale for the "IA" remake is to be Bulgaria!

[–] jolieo8 18 years ago

I can't tell everyone how glad I am that I found out the name of this movie. literally I just found it out like 10 minutes ago. All I remember was watching it in a condo in florida when I was probably 9 years old. I had nightmares for a week! I am a huge horror movie fan now and would love to see it again to see what i can remember from it!!

[–] ColinHarvey 18 years ago

I'm going to eat humble pie on the subject of the "IA" remake. I've read several Web sites talking about this very thing...that it's being remade in Bulgaria with Bijou Phillips playing the part of the critter's mum.

What I wonder is how they're going to make Bulgaria look like the U.S. Bulgaria is very Eastern European/Russian influenced...their language even uses the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. What are they going to do, cover up all the street signs in every shot?

I don't see it really going anywhere, other than the fact that Bijou Phillips is pretty and a lot of guys will probably go see it just for that. I've read recently that horror is not doing that well at the box office simply because there's a glut of it and remakes (horror and otherwise) are doing even less. Direct-to-DVD, anyone?

I wonder if they'll haul out the (in)famous 1977 trailer and jazz it up to make it look "modern"...

[–] midwifekathynew 17 years ago

"I wonder if they'll haul out the (in)famous 1977 trailer and jazz it up to make it look "modern"... "

...And scare the crap out of a whole new generation of little kids. Ah, the circle of life. I wonder if my older son will get anywhere near his baby brother after that.

[–] ColinHarvey 17 years ago

And scare the crap out of ME all over again, even at 41 years old. I first saw that trailer on an afternoon in May, 1977 when I was 11 years old, just after I got home from school, with my mother. She kept saying "what the hell is THAT?" I couldn't sleep. She had to dose me with NyQuil that night. My school attendance improved markedly after that (I didn't want to be anywhere with a TV in case that trailer came on!).

[–] Boutros_Boutros_Sirhan_Sirhan 17 years ago

I love this movie. It's presented in as realistic a manner as the subject can get with very solid acting. The minimalism used in showing the baby worked fantastic as well for the creepy/scares factor, and made the school scene immensely creepy with the body suit/puppet use. The cinematography was very well done and the style of the cinematography combined with the direction reminded me A LOT of the style used in The French Connection and The Exorcist, and it worked to enhance the realism (and the red lighting flashing tunnel scene was a great effect). It was even better seeing it recently than it was seeing it on Monstervision in the mid 90's.

[–] santo1967 17 years ago

All I can say is I enjoyed the movie, have seen it about 5 times of the course of my lifetime and it scared the *beep* out of me when I saw it for the first time at the movies when I was 9.

[–] crashdummy35 10 years ago

Bumping this thread because, this movie is still awesome and deserves some respect.

[–] pmiles1968 9 years ago

Had to reply as I am watching this right now!

Growing up in the Mid-70s, my parents were huge horror film fans, so we often went as a family to the drive-In. Saw lots of movies that scared me, but NONE quite like IA (with the exception of The Exorcist..but that's another story). Anyway, as a parent now, I would never dream of taking my daughter to see a horror flick, but I still love them! This movie scared the $h!t out of me as a kid. After seeing the movie, I had nightmares for a long time. My dad would send me to the basement to fetch a soda for him and while I was down there, he would mimic that awful baby's "cry". I laugh about it now, but I sure wasn't laughing then! Watching it now, it is awfully dated. The costumes clearly say late 60's/early 70's. And I watch it now, only out of nostalgia. I'm not a fan of the way Hollywood is remaking movies, but I think a remake of IA could be quite good, if done right.

EDIT: I did see the 2008 remake and was pretty disappointed. Not sure exactly why. So maybe its best to just leave this one alone, Hollywood!

[–] phlbrq58 9 years ago

I was twenty and not a horror fan but this film had a great tv ad campaign so I took my 14 year old sister who was into the genre. It was in the largest shoebox screen, so about 220 seats and near sell out. The film played the audience masterfully. Howls of disgust, horror and laughter on cue. Everyone had a very good time. I was more of a foreign film, serious type but always admired a film that worked on that audience level. Later that year Dirty Mary Crazy Larry worked the audience much the same way.
In 74 the distribution pattern was regional. Movies would release in a region and tv ads were on local shows, 4-8 pm with heavy repetition. The movies mostly disappeared when the ads stopped but some stuck around. It's Alive didn't. I don't know what my reaction would have been in a sparsely attended screening. This was a happening type of thing for me.

[–] dpaterson-2 8 years ago

This is perhaps one of the worst films ever made. It is not some classic B horror film, but an inept effort at such a film. Truly awful editing. Awful cinematography. The acting has no class whatsoever, which is what classic B's have, and includes people who know what they are doing on a film set. They memorized their lines -- truly bad lines -- and did the obvious from start to finish. The monster baby is a joke. The makers introduce it from the first scene with the mom's pregnancy and then with great cleverness leave its "appearance", such as it is, to the very end. In between is a wasteland of padding and plodding plot with background music to, well why not, die for. The baby mock up is downright laughable, like a fourth-grade project. I wonder if many of the high-praise comments above are submitted by the actors and other film makers themselves.