The film is too crudely cobbled together to make much of anything -- even a score by Bernard Herrman.

| Jun 27, 2023

It skews on the amateurish side, with an intriguing premise compromised by bland characters, awkward dialogue, and lurching scenes.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 29, 2021

It's Alive goes from foreboding conversations about pollution to full tilt nightmare rather quickly.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 25, 2020

...the picture slowly-but-surely loses its grip on the viewer as it progresses into an often unbearably meandering midsection...

| Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 11, 2020

It's Alive is a classic in its own right, having created a new monster, one created by mankind's willingness to ignore its environment and its own lives, something that was way ahead of its time in 1974 ...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2020

Larry Cohen's horror thriller is at once a great suspense/monster film and a darkly comic soap opera about strained parent-child relationships.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 24, 2019

In the '70s, when the American family was changing in many ways, Larry Cohen used a monster movie to envision the collapse of parent-child relationships.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 1, 2019

It's Alive is an oddly subdued and mature picture dealing seriously with basic adult fears

| Sep 28, 2018

It's Alive is a marvel, with a solid performance by Ryan and a mesmerizing score by the late, great Bernard Herrmann.

| Aug 11, 2018

A far-fetched cult thriller.

| Original Score: A | Jul 16, 2009

A deeply terrifying portrait of child-parent relationships and intolerant fears of "otherness" defined as much by its sociological sharpness as its gore.

| Original Score: A | Jan 26, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 9, 2006

Entertaining cheese.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 21, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 31, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 22, 2005

One part allegory on familial tensions and one part commentary on environmental and biological poisoning.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 3, 2004

You wouldn't want to confuse what Cohen does for art, but for its genre It's Alive! manages a few neat tricks

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 27, 2004

This is no Rosemary's Baby but more like a campy Godzilla in diapers.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Oct 27, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 15, 2003

Choice Cohen schlock. 'There's only one thing wrong with the Davis baby...it's alive.'

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 11, 2003