Larry Cohen’s IT’S ALIVE (1974)

RETROGOTHIC FILM SERIES
April 24-26, 2026 | |$12 per film | $50 for a 5-Pass

Larry Cohen’s IT’S ALIVE
(R, 1974, 91 min)
“There’s only one thing wrong with the Davis baby… it’s alive.” With that tagline and an infamous TV trailer that gave a generation nightmares, “It’s Alive” secured its cult reputation. The nightmare begins when Frank and Lenore Davis’s second child is born monstrously deformed, lashing out with lethal instinct. As police and scientists close in, the parents wrestle with guilt, denial, and an unholy bond of love. Though framed as a modern thriller, the film pulses with gothic dread: a cursed family, a monstrous heir, and a world powerless against fate. Cohen blends creature-feature shocks with 1970s social anxieties, while Bernard Herrmann’s eerie score underscores the tragedy. Once dismissed as schlock, it now stands as modern gothic horror at its most unforgettable.
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