It's Alive (2009 film)

It's Alive is a 2009 American horror film directed by Josef Rusnak. It is a remake of the 1974 film of the same name written and directed by Larry Cohen. Bijou Phillips stars as a mother who has a murderous baby.

It's Alive
DVD cover
Directed byJosef Rusnak
Produced byMarc Toberoff
Robert Katz
Screenplay by
Based onIt's Alive
by Larry Cohen
Starring
Music byNicholas Pike
CinematographyWedigo von Schultzendorff
Edited by
  • Alain Jakubowicz
  • Patrick McMahon
Distributed byMillennium Films
Release date
  • April 20, 2009 (2009-04-20)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$957,897

Plot

In Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lenore Harker leaves college to have a baby with her architect boyfriend, Frank. After discovering the baby has doubled in size in just a month, doctors extract the baby by Caesarian section. After the doctor cuts the umbilical cord, the newborn baby Daniel goes on a rampage and kills the surgical team in the operating room. He afterwards crawls onto his mother's belly and falls asleep. Lenore and Daniel are found on the operating table, the room covered in blood. Lenore has no memory of what happened.

After questioning by the police, Lenore is allowed to take Daniel home. Authorities arrange for a psychologist to help her regain her memory of the delivery. Soon, Daniel bites Lenore when she feeds him, revealing his taste for blood.

Daniel begins to attack small animals and progresses to killing adult humans. Lenore refuses to accept that her baby is a cannibalistic killer. Frank comes home from work to find Lenore sitting in the baby's room, but Daniel is not in his crib. The electricity goes off. Frank goes to check the fuse and at the same time searches for Daniel in the basement. Then he finds himself locked in. Daniel kills Marco, the police officer who came with Sergeant Perkins. Perkins finds Frank in the basement. As Perkins and Frank search for Daniel, Daniel suddenly drops down on Perkins and kills him. Frank captures Daniel with a rubbish can, but cannot bring himself to kill him. Daniel leaps out of the rubbish can and attacks Frank when he lifts the lid off the rubbish can.

Lenore finds Frank injured, and she brings Daniel into the burning house. Frank and his brother, Chris watch helplessly as the house burns with Lenore and Daniel inside.

Cast

Production

Shooting began in Sofia, Bulgaria, in March 2007.[1]

Release

The film was released straight-to-DVD in the United States on October 6, 2009. It is available in both rated and unrated editions. The film had theatrical release in the Philippines in August 2009.[2] Outside the US, it grossed $957,897.[3]

Reception

Gareth Jones of Dread Central rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "Don’t go into It's Alive expecting a genuinely good movie (let's face it, neither was the original), but do expect to be entertained."[4] Brian Orndorf of DVD Talk rated it 1.5/5 stars and wrote that the film "lacks suspense or even basic waves of dread".[5]

Not all reviews of the film were negative. HorrorFreakNews.com awarded the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing, "It’s Alive intelligently shifts conventional scary movie making. Moreover, the movie cleverly pushes the viewer to focus on the evil incarnated by the child."[6]

Larry Cohen, the director of the 1974 original, was interviewed on December 21, 2009, regarding the remake and gave it a negative review, saying "It's a terrible picture. It's just beyond awful," and "I would advise anybody who likes my film to cross the street and avoid seeing the new enchilada."[7]

References
  1. Kay, Jeremy (2007-05-06). "Rusnak's It's Alive remake starts shooting in Bulgaria". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
  2. "Red Band Trailer Debut for 'It's Alive' Remake! | | Bloody DisgustingBloody Disgusting". Bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved 2012-07-17.
  3. "It's Alive". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
  4. "It's Alive (2009)". Dread Central. 2009-09-03. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
  5. Orndorf, Brian (2009-09-30). "It's Alive (2009)". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
  6. Abdellahi, Mohamed. "It's Alive! (2009) Review". HorrorFreakNews.com. Mohamed Abdellahi. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  7. Layne, Bryan (21 December 2009). "Larry Cohen Interview". Films in Review. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
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