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From mutant women to mutant babies, this week on The Rotten Horror Picture show we continue our trend of twisted reproductive horror with a trip to the nursery with 1974’s Larry Cohen schlock-fest, It’s Alive! It’s a killer kid and questionable parents galore as the carnivorous child goes on a killing spree, where no milkman or casual passerby is safe from its ghoulish goo-goo ga ga!
Leaving their son Chris with a family friend, Frank and Lenore Davis head to the hospital for the birth of their second child, who turns out to be a mutant who kills many doctors and nurses as it escapes. Convinced his monstrous son should be destroyed, Frank ignores Lenore and Chris’ pleas and tries to destroy the freakish progeny, unaware that the infant might be the blameless product of an experimental drug gone wrong.
Join Clay and Amanda as they give a bottle to A cop whose specialty is surprisingly NOT hunting and killing babies, the voice of Mr. Freeze for like 30 seconds, gender politics that feel outdated even in the time the movie was made, a nurse with too much information and not enough bedside manner, business meetings, phone calls, car rides, smoking indoors inside a hospital, a lengthy discussion of PR firm client retention, and some intensely questionable parenting.
It’s Alive! Is a very interesting entry on our list, as Amanda and Clay both have intense reservations about its inclusion. Notable for being one of the earliest movies to feature creature effects by Academy Award Winner Rick Baker, it’s a movie with a great premise, but one that ultimately suffers in execution and tone.
So light up a nice smooth cigarette, sit on your mustard yellow couch against your mustard yellow wall, read the TV guide, and throw your mutant baby at a doctor with us…if you dare!