It’s Alive
(1974 Warner DVD Original + 2008 First Look Unrated DVD Remake)
Picture:
B-/C Sound: C/C+ Extras: B/C Films: B+/C-
The awful
cycle of remaking every classic Horror film around has been a disaster and 2009
has been as bad a year as any. Some
films are harder to remake than others and the shallow trash idea that you can
take a title and use it as a name brand, resulting in a franchise is inane and
worse. One of the last major Horror
films to be desecrated is Larry Cohen’s grossly underrated It’s Alive, the 1974 film that just kept going and going and
going. Pre-mass media era, it was
playing very limited for a year in theaters before Warner Bros. picked it up
and it became such a hit, two sequels followed.
Cohen was thinking about doing an updated sequel, but not before Josef
Rusnak (duds Art Of War II, Thirteenth Floor) ruined it.
In the
original, a nice married couple (Sharon Farrell, John P. Ryan) are expecting,
but she is not feeling very good. The
baby does not “feel right” and when she gives birth, she passes out and all the
delivery team is brutally murdered, but by whom? As the police investigate, they start to
realize it is their child, with the investigation of how linking the childbirth
with industrial pollution. That was a
very new idea then and makes this highly suspenseful, smart, effective thriller
all the more palpable. Up there with Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen, this is a classic that goes
beyond the genre and deserves serious rediscovery (and a Blu-ray release by
Warner).
The
remake may cause people who have never seen the first film to see what the big
fuss was about and why it was remade.
You certainly would have no idea it was even know by watching how bad,
weak, lame and highly unnecessary this dumb remake is. Bijou Philips (a good actress wasted in her
worst role and performance) is the pregnant woman and when she has her baby,
the same thing happens, but not much more.
From there, the 85 boring minutes just drags along with nothing much to
do save a few killing set ups then ends in the dumbest way possible. Despite paying for the name and use of
Cohen’s script, it is surprising how much of the script is thrown out the
window. The result is a bomb that barely
played theaters and rightly so.
The
unknown actors are boring, there is zero suspense, the dialogue is as flat as
it is stupid and it is a total waste that should have never been made. It is not offensive, an extremely thin
redeeming value something like The Last
House On The Left remake cannot claim, but it is just a paycheck for Cohen
and Rusnak joins a growing list of hacks who should never be left with a camera
of any kind. As bad as the recent
similar feature Grace (reviewed
elsewhere on this site) was, at least it had some good ideas and this has none.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the original film looks very good
with a transfer approved by Cohen and lensed by his great Director of
Photography collaborator Fenton Hamilton.
It features great shooting throughout, enhancing the narrative, pumping
up the suspense and creating so many stark, memorable shots than it holds its
power decades later. The Dolby Digital
1.0 Mono should have been 2.0 Mono, but is clean and features a fine score by
the legendary Bernard Herrmann.
The remake
has an anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image that is soft, loaded with motion
blur, has color issues, bad editing and no one on the set seems to know what to
do with a scope frame. The digital
effects are laughable all the way to the reveal of the baby and if it were a
hit, Family Guy would have gone
after it. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has
an awkward soundstage, is uneven and location audio flaws are in the mix, which
can also be harsh and has forgettable music all around.
Extras in
the remake are trailers for this and other, better First Look releases, while
the original film has trailers for the original trilogy and an excellent,
must-hear feature length audio commentary by Cohen recorded before the remake
was even cooked up. However, he discusses
remaking the film with updated biology, technology and more twists. Apparently, the team who remade it did not
even listen to his commentary before making it for suggestions.
Stick
with the original and then see the sequels.
Avoid this remake like the H1N1 virus!
- Nicholas Sheffo
