It’s Alive (1974) – Nostalgia Central

“There’s only one thing wrong with the Davis baby. It’s alive.”

The Davis baby is quite a little monster. At birth, it kills off five of the delivery room staff and then escapes to prey on the city of Los Angeles at large.

We know it’s around because there is undergrowth moving about and the odd dead body or two with slashed throats (it is equipped with long and sharp fangs and claws).

Along comes a poor, hapless milkman on his rounds. And everyone knows babies need milk. Even monster babies. With a chaser of blood, of course.

It next turns up at the school attended by its big brother, 11-year-old Chris (Daniel Holzman), where it nabs a policeman.

Finally, it gets home, where its mother Lenore (Sharon Farrell) and father Frank (John Ryan) are going crazy and agonising over what they have produced.

Daddy Davis decides to take a gun to Junior to destroy what he has created. But the wee thing escapes down the sewer, trailing blood and with what looks like the entire LAPD on its tail.

The movie ends with the news that “another one has been born in Seattle”.

Larry Cohen has no one to blame but himself for this. He wrote, directed and produced it. Hiring Rick Baker to create the mutant baby (which is only ever partially revealed in tantalising glimpses) proved to be the one wise move Cohen made.

The film was first released in 1974 with a lacklustre advertising campaign and was unsuccessful at the box office.

It was re-released in 1976 with a print and TV advertising campaign of a darkly lit baby carriage with a hand with clawed fingers hanging over the edge.

This time, the picture was a hit and spawned two sequels and a 2009 remake.

Frank Davis
John Ryan
Lenore Davis
Sharon Farrell
Chris Davis
Daniel Holzman
The Professor
Andrew Duggan
Bob Clayton
Guy Stockwell
Lt. Perkins
James Dixon
The Captain
Michael Ansara
The Executive
Robert Emhardt
Charley
William Wellman Jr.
The Doctor
Shamus Locke
Nurse
Nancy Burnett
Secretary
Diana Hale

Director
Larry Cohen

Video