I really want to make fun of "It's Alive" for a lot of reasons but I can't tell if there is real social commentary being attempted or if it's just accidental. Was the mutant baby caused by birth control? One of the characters made a comment about pollution hinting that that may be the cause of deformities? Whatever the message was it wasn't exactly well executed. "It's Alive" had a definite TV-movie-of-the-week vibe to it. I thought the editing was sloppy and at times it was jarring. The score was provided by Bernard Herrmann. I really love Herrmann's music but in this movie it just doesn't work. First there was too much music. Second there were smaller moments when Herrmann's score was appropriate but they were outnumbered by the times the music was loud and swelled to levels that just brought me out of the movie. I liked the tunes themselves but they usually didn't fit in the context of what was occurring on screen. The thing that bothered me most was during the entire run time we never get a good look at the mutant child. I do like the slow reveal of horror but there eventually has to be a payoff a money shot where we get to see what everyone on-screen is gasping and screaming about. But in this movie it just never comes. We see the mutant in the shadows in the flash of a squad car's siren etc. but it's never revealed. The most effective scene in the movie is the birth of the mutant. It's very chaotic and a little unnerving but that's the high point. From there the movie nearly grinds to a halt. I'll bet that this story must have really been different even shocking for audiences back in 1974. Today though it's seems pretty dated. But hey...it's now a cult classic.