The Trailer Park: "It's Alive" Remake

With all the good reviews of Grace going around, horror seems primed for yet another killer baby movie. This time it’s It’s Alive and the trailer has got me as scared of motherhood as I’ve ever been.The plot of the original is simple: a mutant baby born to unsuspecting parents goes on a killing rampage whenever it feels scared. Don’t wake the baby.

The birthing scene reminds me of the alien autopsy in Independence Day, an appropriate parallel considering Lenore’s baby is an alien menace that kills at will and a commentary on the nature of birth. It is also interesting to note that Lenore’s repeated concern that there is something wrong with the baby goes unheeded by the male medical establishment that dismisses her female intuition.

I enjoyed the near-closing dialogue of the trailer. Someone tells the father “It’s dead Frank,” to which he replies “No. It’s alive” This snippet is of course referring the film’s title, which riffs off of fears of the in-between nature of newborns. For nine months they develop in the mother’s womb and are not really alive as a separate organism, but they aren’t dead either. They are in effect un-dead and this crossing of borders has been a source of anxiety in horror films stretching back to Rosemary’s Baby and The Brood.

It’s Alive seems more action-packed and less introspective than Grace, something that might lead to more to laughs than thrills (I nearly choked on my soft drink when the baby snatches the cat). But the final scene has me hoping for more as Lenore returns to a ruined home and croons “Mommy’s back,” suggesting that she has come to grips with her baby’s monstrosity and plans to care for it instead of killing it.