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How sad is this?

Good movie but grossly overrated

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This remake of Larry Cohen's cult '70s horror is utterly awful from start to finish, director Josef Rusnak unable to make the (admittedly silly) premise of a killer baby convincing or scary in any way. Every scene will have you squirming in your seat, not out of fear, but out of sheer embarrassment for the actors who signed up for this terrible film.Bijou Phillips plays grad student Lenore Harker, who drops out of school after the traumatic birth of her son Daniel (the entire medical team being slaughtered while performing a C-section). Despite mounting evidence pointing towards Daniel as the culprit, Lenore acts as though nothing is wrong, while architect father Frank (James Murray) remains oblivious throughout. Various people meet messy fates at the claws and jaws of the vicious mite, with some dreadful CGI effects and lots of blood, but the concept and execution is so weak that it's impossible to care.The best thing that happens in the whole film is the burning to the ground of the really ugly house that is home to the main characters: it's such an eyesore that it's hard to believe that an architect would want to live there.

When I watched this film at the movie theater, I had a revelation. I couldn't stop laughing out of the irony.Actors' performances are awful and most of them are not believable; the screenplay is horrible and sissy; the "Special Effects" seem to be retro but they aren't (just look at the fire in the house of the final scene); and many other characteristics made this movie, one of the worst movies ever made.However, there are good things about this movie: for instance, if you're studying cinematography you should watch "It's Alive", because this film made think about how not to make movies!

'It's Alive'! and you'll wish you weren't after wasting time on this little beauty! Allow me to continue. So, is this New Mexico after a nuclear winter? I live in Oregon and this certainly looked like my home, not New Mexico. No sand, no sun, no people of color. But I digress. As the plot (and I use that word loosely) began to unfold another demented baby movie came to mind, that being "Grace". Drop 'It's Alive' on its head and run out and get that movie. Major creep-out. When shown at Sundance, it was said to have caused two men to faint and projectile vomiting from audience members. Anyhow, why does she keep the bundle of joy? If he is so strong as to take out adults, how is it he reverts to cooing baby when in her arms? How is it that she has breasts left? How is it that her husband hasn't noticed the little freak when he gazes upon him in sheer love? This movie is a mess and not in a laughable, good way. Like others who reviewed, I was drawn in by Ms. Phillips. Curious I guess. She did a good job. Didn't burst out laughing at the absurdities in the story line. Did I really see the tiny hand of the baby grabbing at thin air from inside the mouth of one of the victims? If so, it was worth it for that.

Bijou Phillips is pregnant about six months but the infant inside is growing at an abnormal rate and must be taken out due to the pain inflicted on the mother. Shortly after its birth via C-section, the entire hospital staff is slaughtered by the baby, but Phillips cannot recollect (or has simply blocked the whole incident out) what happened much to the disappointment of the police who need answers. James Murray is the father, Raphaël Coleman his crippled brother(a car accident which killed their parents, he barely survived), Ty Glaser Phillips' school friend, Owen Teale the police officer(Sgt Perkins who suspects Phillips knows more than she is letting on), and Jack Ellis the psychiatrist( attempting to jar Phillips' memory as to what happened that day in surgery)round out the cast. To be honest, I'm not a Bijou Phillips fan and she once again did little to change my opinion of her. Except at the beginning, before entering the hospital for her son's birth, Phillips remains vacuous and aloof. I do understand that her character is tired and mentally deteriorating due to her baby's ferocious appetite for blood and human flesh(killing people and the difficulties of breastfeeding, not to mention, the constant crying for more cannibalistic nourishment don't help matters), but I had a damn hard time sympathetically aligning myself to her. I do think the point of the first film, the desperate attempts by a mother to protect her beloved child no matter what damage it causes or people it harms, is present in the remake, but a lot of the original's personality is missing from the newer modern take. I enjoyed Larry Cohen's "panic stricken public" and how the killer infant was considered a terror to the city, while this remake localizes the monster baby's antics to Phillips and Murray's New Mexico home. Those who come to talk sense into Phillips usually wind up lunch for the baby who even eats rats and cats. While acknowledging her baby's activities in horror when she comes across the grisly remains of what it has done to people it feeds from, she nevertheless continues to protect it, consequences be damned. We know that eventually protecting the baby will become impossible and she will have to take drastic measures to keep it from killing her husband or his brother. I didn't find IT'S ALIVE particularly satisfying, especially the underwhelming CGI of the baby(it is hardly ever on screen and when it is, the effects are quite noticeable)and the gory attacks are often hard to decipher due to the director's insistence on not showing the murders in elaborate detail. I'd just say stick with the original unless you are just a monster baby movie completist. How the baby can lock its father in the basement, hop around like a squirrel, and create such bloody crime scenes defies common sense. The film's explanation for the abnormalities of the baby derived from pills off the internet which are supposed to cause a miscarriage!