70’s B Movies: It’s Alive

The below trailer scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. I had that scream in my head at night and I peeked around every corner. This is a 70’s B Drive-in type movie…but I enjoyed it. I could not talk my mom into taking me to see this one in 1977.

It’s Alive was released in a limited run in 1974. It was reissued with the below commercial in 1977 and that is when I heard that damn scream. The budget was $500,000 and the US gross was over $14,000,000 and by 1977 it climbed over $30,000,000 worldwide. Mr. Cohen did very well… there were sequels….but of course.

The Davises have had a baby but they are not sending out any announcements. Most new parents are a little scared when they have a baby. The Davises are terrified. You see there is only one thing wrong with the Davis baby… IT’S ALIVE…(insert scream)

The movie is about a couple who have a killer mutant baby but it does have some social commentary about the medicines and chemicals we take that will cause trouble…as in mutant killer babies.

It was written, produced, and directed by Larry Cohen. The couple’s name was Frank and Lenore Davis…Lenore had been given contraceptive medicine and the doctor who prescribed the drugs to Lenore is contacted by a pharmaceutical company executive. The executive acknowledges that the child’s mutation may have been caused by the drugs. He tells the doctor that the child must be destroyed to prevent the discovery of the company’s liability.

It’s Alive Cast… Cast. John P. Ryan as Frank Davis. Andrew Duggan as the Professor. Sharon Farrell as Lenore Davis. Guy Stockwell as Bob Clayton.James Dixon as Lieutenant Perkins. Michael Ansara as the Captain.William Wellman Jr. as Charley.

The film was followed by two sequels, It Lives Again (1978) and It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) and a remake, It’s Alive (2009).