Horror Movie Review: It’s Alive (2009 – Remake)

Lenore Harker (Bijou Phillips) is pregnant. Something she seems to be very happy about considering it’s forcing to to take time away from college. She might be young but thanks to the love & support of her boyfriend, Frank (James Murray) she thinks she’s got a handle on things.

That is until she starts to have labour pains in the shower, something that is a bit unexpected seeing as she’s only six months pregnant. Lenore is brought in to hospital where it’s discovered that her baby has grown unexpectedly & is ready to be delivered today!

Scared but in the hands of professionals, Lenore goes to have her baby delivered by C-section. When she wakes from her she discovers a scene of complete horror. Every doctor & nurse in the room are dead. Blood is splattered everywhere & the culprit is nowhere to be found. Mercifully though whoever did this to the hospital staff left the baby alive.

Lenore is sent home while the police try to figure out just what happened. A police officer (Owen Teale) believes that she might know more. So he pushes to have her see a police psychiatrist to try & jog her memories, something she finds very frustrating.

If that wasn’t enough, the baby (Daniel) is a demanding little fella. When not crying to be fed he’s quick to go find food himself. Be it dog food, birds & even Lenore’s friends when they come to check up on her.

Yep, It’s Alive is a remake of the 1974 movie of the same name. A movie about a baby that has gone a bit…wrong. How? Well the explanation that comes later is actually a pretty satisfying one! So how does Lenore manage with a demonic blood thirsty baby? Call an exorcist? Kill it? Or just clean up after it & scold it like you would a child who had been caught with his fingers in the cookie jar?

That one. It kind of makes sense as she is clearly driven to the brink of madness. However, the film is quick to gloss over her descent. Rather then make that a major focus it instead goes for brief snippets of her finding bodies then acting briefly shocked before getting rid of the evidence.

The next scene you wouldn’t even know anything had even happened. It makes the entire middle feel rushed which is nonsensical when you get to a finale that is incredibly dragged out!

Up until the final 20 minutes or so it’s an fairly entertaining movie. While it never reaches the heights of the delivery room slaughter in regards to gore it still has some fun moments. The film wisely avoids showing us the terrible tyke for most of the movie leaving what it might look like up to the imagination.

Unfortunately when it finally does reveal the demonic creature it’s a complete let-down thanks to the poor CGI. How is that zombie baby from the 1992 low budget comedy-horror Braindead looks better then this sorry excuse?

The dour finale & poor CGI is what you’ll likely remember by time the credits roll. (Bijou Phillips) does well in her role but absolutely no-one else does anything of note. Ultimately it’s the poor pacing that stops It’s Alive being a good movie. As a remake it does perfectly fine seeing as the original was hardly a great film anyway!