Horror journeyman Larry Cohen, writer and director of numerous quirky horror projects, made his first foray into the genre with this low-budget cult favorite about a murderous mutant baby on a suburban rampage. The story opens with a delivery-room massacre as the newborn child of Frank and Lenore Davies (John P. Ryan and Sharon Farrell) answers the doctor's slap by tearing him to pieces -- along with a few other medical personnel -- before fleeing the hospital for whereabouts unknown. The
subsequent hunt for the killer baby creates a rift between Frank, who wants the child destroyed, and Lenore, whose maternal instincts convince her that her child is not deliberately homicidal but merely frightened and defending itself. The baby's bloody rampage continues with several murders (including the creepy scene in which the terrible tyke savages the neighborhood milkman), until it is cornered by Frank and a police task-force. At the crucial moment, Frank has a sudden change of heart and tries to defend the infant from the police. Despite painfully low production values that render the monster scenes a bit silly (Rick Baker's creepy-looking but inarticulate baby model was simply pulled along on a string), Cohen's concept shines through, presenting a skewed but sincere interpretation of family values that could only be pulled off in the horror genre (see also Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes for another example). The script makes passing suggestions that the mutation was a result of an inadequately tested fertility drug, a concept explored more fully in the sequel It Lives Again and quite extensively in the third installment, Island of the Alive. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
A deeply terrifying portrait of child-parent relationships and intolerant fears of "otherness" defined as much by its sociological sharpness as its gore.
A mother gives birth to a violent mutant baby that goes on a rampage. It's a little silly but watchable comic horror. Most of the kills take place off camera annoyingly leaving you with just the bloody aftermath, but there's brief glimpses of gore now and then. I was also impressed with John P. Ryans performance as the
father of the bloodthirsty mutant baby. Didn't like the film as much as I thought I would... dare I check out the remake?
April 26, 2008
Lee ?
Super Reviewer
This movie is like a sequel to Rosemary's Baby combined with a bio-hazard type movie. I'm not sure whether or not it was a good idea, but it is creepy, and a pretty good horror movie, but it could be better.
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