It’s Alive (2008)

Directed by: Josef Rusnack | 80 minutes | horror | Actors: Bijou Phillips, James Murray, Raphaël Coleman, Owen Teale, Ty Glaser, Jack Ellis, Arkie Reece, Todd Jensen, Skye Bennett, Laura Giosh, Sigal Diamant

If you’ve ever been to a birthday party with a bunch of new parents, you know they love to brag about their offspring’s progress. Parent A: “Our Sam can roll over already. And he’s just four months old!” Parent B: “Well, mine is five months and he’s already sitting up!” After seeing ‘It’s Alive’ you wonder what it would be like if young mother Lenore (Bijou Phillips) joined the conversation. “My Daniel was fully grown after six months of pregnancy,” she would probably announce with some pride. “Before he shit his first diaper, he slaughtered a room full of midwives. He recently switched to solid food. This morning he ate another psychiatrist. A mess he made! The blood was everywhere! That’s what happens with babies, you can keep washing.” Nice, that maternal instinct, but what Lenore will do for her kid borders on the ridiculous. No matter how greedy her baby is and how many friends, acquaintances and pets end up in his jaws, she hardly takes any action. She neatly cleans up all the bones. Monster or not, it’s still your child, isn’t it?

‘It’s Alive’ is an unnecessary remake of the horror film from 1974 written and directed by Larry Cohen. The original ‘It’s Alive’ was not a high flyer either, but thanks to a few effective scares and the memorable film music by Bernard Herrmann it managed to achieve a modest cult status. to achieve. Cohen also co-wrote the screenplay for this 2008 version. Aside from the money, an extremely bad move, the director later admitted in an interview. In that same interview, Cohen even advised his fans not to watch the remake, because there was little to be found of his input. He had no good words for the end result: “It’s a terrible picture. It’s just beyond awful.” And he was right. Apart from some unintentionally funny moments, ‘It’s Alive’ has little to offer. The characters are flat, hardly arouse sympathy and their actions are often incomprehensible. There is no tension build-up. The baby that it’s all about is very sparse and if you do catch a glimpse of him, you’ll at most chuckle. ‘There Is Only One Thing Wrong With The Davis Baby… It’s Alive’ is the subtitle of the film. Nonsense, there is more wrong with Daniel. Bad special effects for example. There’s only one thing you can do with this misfire: shut up.