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purplecatI got back from Toronto and headed off straight away for a Primeval weekend in Birmingham where, among other things we watched It's Alive entirely because it had James Murray in it.
I got rather distracted, early on, by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lukadreaming's assertion that it had a Christian moral (said useful fact gleaned from the Internet).
Briefly, in It's Alive, a couple give birth to a demon baby which proceeds to munch upon miscellaneous friends, health care professionals and police men before both Mum and baby die in a fire which has conveniently started up in their home.
I started with the hypothesis that the demon baby was the Wrath of God personified. This, rather entertainingly, provides God's hit list (in order of decreasing plausibility):
1. People who disapprove of Stay-at-home Moms and encourage abortions.
2. People who smoke.
3. Police Psychologists who are "good at getting witnesses to remember things".
4. Miscellaneous household pets, rodents and local wildlife.
5. Policemen who drive really slowly (judging by day night cycles at the family home, it took the local police chief about three days to drive out there - mind you by this point I wasn't paying close attention. It's possible there were just a lot of shots of him in his car).
6. Policewomen who associate with Policemen who drive really slowly.
7. Healthcare professionals who cut umbilical cords (I mean I've heard of attachment parenting, but still!).
It also gave a, somewhat shorter, God's approval list:
1. Crippled Children.
2. Dad's who shut their babies in dustbins, drag them out into the forest, contemplate shooting them but wimp out at the last minute (Dad is maimed but not killed).
So I rejected the hypothesis that the demon baby was the Wrath of God personified.
I then spent a while side-tracked by the possibility that we would get a flying demon baby goes for the jugular scene, much like the Vorpal Bunny from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. To my surprise, I was not disappointed, although Monty Python did it better.
Then we got the crucial info-dump scene in which, in flashback, the friend-who-disapproves-of-stay-at-home-moms-and-approves-of-abortion buys abortion pills off the internet and feeds them to Mum, who instantly changes her mind and prays to God to please save her baby whatever the cost.
Inferred Moral: Do not pray to God. He has a sick sense of humour.
Saner Moral: Don't buy dodgy pharmaceuticals off the Internet.
Conclusion: I'm not sure there actually was a Christian Moral in the film at all.
Internet investigation suggests the version of It's Alive we watched is the remake of a rather more interesting film which was playing with idea's drawn from Frankenstein and was intended, in part, as a parody of Rosemary's Baby, in which the Demon Baby only kills when threatened. That said, it sounds like the emphasis was still primarily on shocks rather than anything more substantial.
I got rather distracted, early on, by
lukadreaming's assertion that it had a Christian moral (said useful fact gleaned from the Internet). Briefly, in It's Alive, a couple give birth to a demon baby which proceeds to munch upon miscellaneous friends, health care professionals and police men before both Mum and baby die in a fire which has conveniently started up in their home.
I started with the hypothesis that the demon baby was the Wrath of God personified. This, rather entertainingly, provides God's hit list (in order of decreasing plausibility):
1. People who disapprove of Stay-at-home Moms and encourage abortions.
2. People who smoke.
3. Police Psychologists who are "good at getting witnesses to remember things".
4. Miscellaneous household pets, rodents and local wildlife.
5. Policemen who drive really slowly (judging by day night cycles at the family home, it took the local police chief about three days to drive out there - mind you by this point I wasn't paying close attention. It's possible there were just a lot of shots of him in his car).
6. Policewomen who associate with Policemen who drive really slowly.
7. Healthcare professionals who cut umbilical cords (I mean I've heard of attachment parenting, but still!).
It also gave a, somewhat shorter, God's approval list:
1. Crippled Children.
2. Dad's who shut their babies in dustbins, drag them out into the forest, contemplate shooting them but wimp out at the last minute (Dad is maimed but not killed).
So I rejected the hypothesis that the demon baby was the Wrath of God personified.
I then spent a while side-tracked by the possibility that we would get a flying demon baby goes for the jugular scene, much like the Vorpal Bunny from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. To my surprise, I was not disappointed, although Monty Python did it better.
Then we got the crucial info-dump scene in which, in flashback, the friend-who-disapproves-of-stay-at-home-moms-and-approves-of-abortion buys abortion pills off the internet and feeds them to Mum, who instantly changes her mind and prays to God to please save her baby whatever the cost.
Inferred Moral: Do not pray to God. He has a sick sense of humour.
Saner Moral: Don't buy dodgy pharmaceuticals off the Internet.
Conclusion: I'm not sure there actually was a Christian Moral in the film at all.
Internet investigation suggests the version of It's Alive we watched is the remake of a rather more interesting film which was playing with idea's drawn from Frankenstein and was intended, in part, as a parody of Rosemary's Baby, in which the Demon Baby only kills when threatened. That said, it sounds like the emphasis was still primarily on shocks rather than anything more substantial.