Killer Babe

 

 (tcm)

IT'S ALIVE-1974-A woman named Lenore (Sharon Farrell) gives birth to a monster baby that kills all the doctors and nurses who helped bring it out. Frank (John P. Ryan), the monstrosity's father acts weird and wants to know what happened to his baby. His boss (Guy Stockwell) wants him to take a vacation. Meanwhile the mutant moppet kills people (the milkman victim is particularly crazy). A university head (Andrew Duggan) wants the baby body dead or alive. The cause of it may have been some birth control pills and the CEO of the company (Robert Emhardt) wants the baby destroyed. SWAT teams converge on it at one point but only find a normal harmless baby. The killer babe goes home and mom hides it in the basement. It threatens their older son and kills a neighbor. Mom goes crazy. 

Eventually the police trap it in a sewer but Frank feeling fatherly saves it. It screams a lot and Frank tries to convince the cops it's harmless (right after the shootout what looks like to me a UFO dots across the sky...). The baby is killed but a police lieutenant gets a call that another mutant baby has been born. 

IT'S ALIVE was the brainchild of maverick writer/director Larry Cohen, made in between HELL UP IN HARLEM and GOD TOLD ME TO. It caused a stir upon its initial release. Many people didn't like the idea of a “killer baby”. It still holds up well today and is better than most modern dunnage that passes for horror. (There was a remake in 2009!) Cohen made two sequels.

Of course I reviewed the Part 2 first!

Thanks for reading!