Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

It's Alive Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson May 16, 2018

It's Alive (1974) is being released as part of Shout! Factory's It's Alive Trilogy box set. My account of the movie's production and release history has relied upon the bonus features on this first disc, original newspaper articles, as well as liner notes by Jeff Bond and Frank K. DeWald in the booklet accompanying Film Score Monthly's CD of Bernard Herrmann's score.

Larry Cohen's semi-indie terror tale It's Alive is a great exemplar of how a low-budget film very slowly builds an audience to eventually become a box office smash—over a three-year period! Although critics often compared (albeit unfavorably) Cohen's fourth theatrically released feature to Rosemary's Baby, Cohen says that he got the idea for the storyline sometime during his teen years and was not really influenced by other films. In an archival commentary on this disc from Shout!, Cohen recalls how he witnessed an angry baby throwing a violent tantrum in a crib. He penned a short story about this and submitted it to his school paper but it never ran. As a young filmmaker, Cohen had directed two blaxploitation pictures, Bone (1972) and Black Caesar (1973). Judith Crist and other critics labeled it a farcical comic masterwork but a scant few saw it. "[Bone] played for about two minutes in the New York area," Cohen quipped to a New York journalist. Still, Cohen proved that he could direct and make the most out of the limited resources he was given. This attracted the attention of Warner Bros., the studio that Cohen sent in his spec script of It's Alive. Production chief Richard Shepherd gave it the green light and predicted it would become a sleeper. A longtime fan of Hitchcock, Cohen had ideas of a Psycho reunion when he considered casting Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh in the lead roles. But when Cohen watched City College classmate John P. Ryan in a New York theater production of Medea, he knew that he had the right actor to portray Frank Davies. Cohen's casting of Ryan was spot-on as the actor exudes every possible emotion that a father must feel after discovering that his newborn is actually a mutant. It's unknown if the part of Lenore Davies was ever officially offered to Leigh. Cohen was impressed with Sharon Farrell's performance opposite Steve McQueen in The Reivers so the Iowa actress ended up getting the part.

Cohen had a budget of a half-million dollars and eighteen days to shoot It's Alive. He finished on schedule and didn't go over budget. In July 1974 the film had a great showing at the Trieste International Science Fiction Film Festival in Italy where it apparently won an award. But back in the States, Warner was in a transitional phase with the arrival of new administration sans Shepherd who departed. The new studio execs were not enthused about a "baby killer" picture and It's Alive tested poorly initially with preview audiences. It received very limited distribution and was often included on a double- or triple-bill with low-budget genre indies. A few mainstream newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times reviewed it during its first theatrical run. Before he became a household name with Roger Ebert on Sneak Previews, At the Movies, and Siskel & Ebert, Gene Siskel was just an ordinary film critic at the Tribune. He saw It's Alive but was turned off: "A film like this could only have been conceived in a drunken stupor....Larry Cohen's imbecilic film really has only one attention getting device, and Cohen plays it for more than it's worth." Siskel was nonetheless accurate in his description of the little creature Rick Baker invented. "[The title character]" looks like a cross between a small wolf and the star child at the end of Stanley Kubrick's 2001." The latter is indeed what Cohen originally had in mind.

Frank holding his baby.

In spite of middling to poor reviews, It's Alive drew audiences at drive-in theaters. For example, both the Bridgton Twin Drive-in located in Maine and the Delsea Drive In based in Vineland, New Jersey paired it with Black Christmas. "2 GIANT COLOR SHOCKERS," read a sub-headline in one of the ads. The other variable that kept It's Alive going was its success overseas at festivals and with the general public in surprising places. At the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival in eastern France, jury chair Roman Polanski must have seen some parallels between It's Alive and his own Rosemary's Baby as he awarded Cohen's film with a special prize. The Avoriaz was a great venue for young maverick filmmakers to showcase their work. Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise won the grand prix and a critics prize was given to Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View. According to an international press report, patrons were "lining 'em up for blocks" to see It's Alive in Paris. In addition, Cohen was to learn later that his film was the second highest grosser for Warners in Singapore behind only My Fair Lady.

When another regime later took the reigns at Warners, Cohen was fortunate to encounter Arthur Manson (director of marketing and publicity) and Terry Semel (head of distribution). Manson believed that he could churn a hit out of It's Alive and Manson cajoled Semel to put the picture on a thousand screens. Posters pictured a crib with a claw hanging out along with the tagline, "There's only one thing wrong with the Davis baby." The marketing ploy worked like magic as the 1977 reissue of It's Alive became the number one film at the domestic box office.

It's Alive Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout! Factory has stated that the Blu-ray transfers for It's Alive and its sequels are all 2018 HD transfers created in 2K resolution at Warner Bros. Motion Pictures Imaging on the Lasergraphics Director scanner from archival interpositives. The 1974 film appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. The main feature boasts an average video bitrate of 35000 kbps while the full disc clocks in at 41.26 Mbps. It's refreshing to have the film in its native ratio. When It's Alive was released on DVD across the globe in the mid-2000s, Warner Home Video opened the image up to 1.78:1. In the recycled commentary track, Cohen says that he thought the standard-definition transfer looked "very good." I haven't seen the 2004 disc but DVD Movie Guide editor Colin Jacobson has, remarking: "Some specks, grit, nicks and blotches showed up sporadically but never created significant distractions...Some shots looked a little flat and dingy, but not many of them suffered from those problems." Mike Bracken of IGN further observes that "there are some issues at times with the color saturation and grain. These don't detract too heavily from the film as a whole, but they are worth noting."

The image on this disc looks nearly immaculate and is largely free of these prior anomalies. As you can tell from these frame grabs, the picture is rather dark with deep blacks. You'll notice the thick and coarse grain in the delivery room of the maternity ward in Screenshot #4. Skin tones are either red or ruddy for several characters, principally the two main protagonists (very understandable considering their plight). In the commentary, Cohen discriminates between the American and British technicolor release prints by proclaiming that the latter had better and more accurate color temperature. More specifically, he deemed the colors on the US prints too saturated. Though I didn't see It's Alive theatrically, the image here looks smooth and film-like. There's no color bleeding or brightness boosting. For the opening main titles, Cohen beamed at least a half-dozen flashlights in his basement and then multiplied prints of the shot he captured (#21). For the Davis baby's point-of-view shots, you'll get used to watching in double-vision (see #22).

Shout! gives the ninety-one-minute feature its standard twelve chapter breaks. (The Warner DVDs had nearly twice as many.)

It's Alive Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

It's Alive's original monaural is given a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Dual Mono mix (1895 kbps, 24-bit). Considering the age and recording limitations, this track sounds very clean to my ears. The aforementioned DVD reviewers noted how the dialogue played too low but that has been fixed and upgraded with this lossless mix. Spoken words are audible and crisp. Herrmann conceived a diverse and unique set of instruments for his score. According to Bond and De Wald, the orchestral ensemble comprised six clarinets (e.g., two bass clarinets and contrabass clarinet), eight French horns, six trumpets, six trombones, two tubas, two harps, Moog synthesizer, electric bass guitar, organ, percussion, and solo viola d'amore. Herrmann rarely if ever plays all the instruments in unison or in counterpoint. It's noticeably different than the string-heavy Psycho. The musical mood is brooding, dissonant, and on a select few occasions, melodic. Its sounds as good if not better in lossless as it does with just the music on the remastered CD. Note that at one time, there may have been stereo masters of the score but Bond and De Wald claim they only found ¼" monaural tapes in the Warner Bros. vaults.

Shout! has supplied English SDH for the main feature only.

It's Alive Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Cohen's Alive: Looking Back at the It's Alive Films Featuring Interviews with Writer/Producer/Director Larry Cohen, Actors James Dixon, Michael Moriarty and Laurene Landon, and More… (18:14, 1080p) - Shout! produced this new making-of doc about the It's Alive Trilogy, although the second installment is only briefly covered. We hear from Cohen (shown interviewed probably on separate days at his home), three of the actors, film music historian/Herrmann expert Jon Burlingame, film journalist F.X. Feeney, cinematographer Daniel Pearl, and producer Paul Kurta. (Note that Shout! doesn't provide any on-screen credit to Kurta while he's speaking.) In English, not subtitled.

• NEW It's Alive at the Nuart: The 40th Anniversary Screening with Larry Cohen (13:27, 1080p) - Cohen speaks with a moderator at an anniversary screening of It's Alive. Though he repeats some of the same anecdotes he shares in the new retrospective doc and old commentary, he has some new ones to tell here as well. In English, not subtitled.

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Producer/Director Larry Cohen - Warner recorded this commentary with Cohen ca. 2004. His memory of the film is replete with amusing and touching anecdotes. There are some extended gaps but this is a very informative track (screen-specific and non). In English, not subtitled.

• Radio Spots (1:49, HD) - some radio spots that Warner had radio stations run in promoting the film. In English, not subtitled.

• TV Spots (1:05, 480i) - a slew of TV spots that were broadcast during the periods It's Alive played in theaters.

• Theatrical Trailer (3:03, 1080p) - a vintage trailer presented in anamorphic widescreen. The voice-over is unintentionally laughable and reveals some of the plot's hidden surprises so don't watch it until you've seen the movie.

• Still Gallery (4:44, 1080p) - a slide show that presents around fifty images. These are culled from It's Alive's press kit, exhibitor manuals, lobby cards, US/international posters, and newspaper advertisements.

It's Alive Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's Alive is not only spine-chilling and terrifying but also somber and moving. Cohen's shock editing, Rick Baker's creature effects, and Herrmann's experimental score have each stood the test of time. Shout! Factory has delivered an outstanding transfer from a new digital intermediate of the film's interpositive. The uncompressed mono track sounds clean and authentic with no conspicuous flaws. I only wish that Shout would have made the new doc longer and more comprehensive. Still, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and the primary reason to grab this box set.