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!

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More Killer Babes

I was just watching the Outer Limits episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" with Bill Shatner as an astronaut returning from Venus who can't stay warm. The name of the space program he's with? Project Vulcan!

IT LIVES AGAIN-1978-In this crazed sequel a couple (Frederic Forrest and Kathleen Lloyd) are about to have a killer baby. Killer baby hunter Mr. Mallory (John Marley) plans to get rid of it but Frank Davis (John P Ryan; returning from the first film) breaks up the plan and forces them at gunpoint to let the wife have her baby at a secret clinic run by mad scientists R. Perry (Andrew Duggan) and Dr. Forest (Eddie Constantine!). They have another set of killer babes in the basement which they think they can control. Eventually the babies revolt, kill their captors and terrorize mom and dad. Dad finally kills his son and then tries to warn other couples. 

This is another quirky outing by written and directed by Larry Cohen, full of cool camera work, weird acting, choppy editing and some unintentional humor (I think!).

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Rip-Off

THE DEVIL WITHIN HER-1975-Former exotic dancer Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) gives birth to a rather large and strong baby (at least that's what the doctor's say; it looks like any normal baby). Weird things happen almost immediately. Baby scratches mommy and later bites their housekeeper. Her Italian husband Geno (Ralph Bates with an accent) hires a nanny but the baby pushes her into a pond and she dies! Lucy reveals a strange story to her girlfriend (Caroline Munro) about the last time she danced and how a dwarf actor "cursed" her ("You will have a baby as big as I am small! A monster!"). She believes her baby is possessed and even sees the dwarf's face in place of her son's. Their doctor (Donald Pleasance) doesn't believe it but when he visits he's decapitated. Dad winds up dead by hanging and his body is stuffed in a drain pipe. Dad's sister, a nun (Elleen Atkins) suspects no good and eventually performs an exorcism but by then everyone is dead! John Steiner is also in it as a Cockney club owner. Much of it doesn't make sense and there's some unintentional humor and it all seems to be inspired by THE EXORCIST, IT'S ALIVE and ROSEMARY'S BABY. 

Director Peter Sasdy did better with previous efforts like TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, COUNTESS DRACULA and HANDS OF THE RIPPER. For some reason it has recently been re-titled SHARON'S BABY.

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