Die Wiege des Schreckens

The most interesting thing about this film was seeing Golden Globe and three-time Emmy winner Michael Moriarty rant and rave about the fact that they wouldn't leave his child alone. I just can't look at Moriarity without seeing Ben Stone from "Law and Order." Seeing him on the other side arguing before Macdonald Carey (also a two-time Daytime Emmy winner for "Days of Our Lives") to save that butt-ugly child of his was hilarious.

But, it gets even funnier as he tries to save his child and, ultimately, his grandchild. He should be Parent of the Year for loving those creatures. Karen Black is his ex, the mother of the monster, and, well, you just have to see how that ends.

Making a comedy out of these things is genius.

It's full of outrageous speeches and monologues ripe with social commentary and dark humor. The violent scenarios are so outrageous as to be funny, intentionally or otherwise. I can't always tell wether I laughing at or with Cohen's material. From Maniac Cop to The Stuff Cohen's movies question America's laws, beliefs, and habits in not so subtle ways. I do think that horror and sci-fi films have an important use as a way of getting audiences to question the way society conducts itself. At the same time I don't know if Cohen is making fun of his own film with some of the more sentimental dialogue (Cubans, then enemies of the U.S. wishing Jarvis the best) and the over the top scenes (a dying baby monster trying to Baptise itself).

How about the babies? Well they have been banished too a Jurassic Park type island where they crawl about in well done stop-animation and dispatch a bunch of hunters in gorey fashion. Unfortunately, the latter half of the film takes place after the babies have matured and the impressive little demons are replaced by silly rubber suits. For some reason they strip their victims of clothes and then wear the tattered rags. Ultimately the conclusion is less spectacular than expected and we don't get to see many close-ups of the bigger monsters for obvious reasons.

Third time was the charm of sorts for Larry Cohen. The first It's Alive film was interesting, the second I thought stupid. But in Island Of The Alive Cohen found the tone he should have used for the two preceding films and the right actor to set the tone.

Michael Moriarty and Karen Black play a parents of the latest mutant baby and Moriarty goes to court on a preventive strike to win his kid's life. He does, but it and some other mutants are placed on a Caribbean island in exile to be studied to find a solution to a growing problem.

Moriarty with his swaggering style dominates this film. The writers took special care of him with the script and he delivers their lines at his sarcastic best. The film takes a couple of real good jabs at contemporary America of the Reagan era.

Sad the film's antecedents retard its ratings. But this is clearly the best of the series. If another is done, hopefully it will be in the same vein.

Stephen Jarvis is the father of the monster (where "the monster" is another bloodthirsty infant). He gets involved with a court case that ends up getting the infants sent to an isolated island. But once the judge who ordered the infants away dies, different parties want them back in the spotlight.

Many people, including my horror reviewing colleague Don Normann, really dislike this film. It is considered the weakest of the three, the least popular and I would suspect that most consider it the cheesiest. I really liked it -- this one, more than the other two, seemed to really hit on a variety of social commentaries. Writer and director Larry Cohen's strength is his social commentary. Actually, that's almost his only strength -- he has no budget, is poorly organized in his shooting schedules and writes much of his scripts on the fly (which is quite obvious).

Two of horror's icons appear here: Michael Moriarty (as Stephen Jarvis) and Karen Black (as Ellen Jarvis). Black is probably now best known to modern audiences from Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses". Moriarty, on the other hand, is a Cohen staple -- appearing in "Q" and "Pick Me Up", for example. And this happens to be one of Moriarty's better roles (he has a very unique way of delivering dialog which works here but is dreadfully awful in "Pick Me Up"). I found him to be a good lead, especially in the improvised segments (such as the singing scene).

There is a good commentary on disease (does an infected child mean an infected parent) and a really good jab at Cuban-American relations. I think Cuba's military obsession is played up a bit, but the part about them being human was a good one (and still relevant twenty years later). And the pharmaceutical company trying to destroy the infants so their drugs couldn't be blamed... very nice (and reminiscent of the Thalidomide scandal).

Lastly, once you've watched it, watch it again with audio commentary (if you get the chance). Cohen's explanations really add a new dimension to this picture, pointing out where Bob Kane's wife comes in (Kane invented Batman), how many of the parts are just Cohen's friends and how a rubber chicken ended up on a deserted island. His justification for a variety of aspects of this film really help you understand what he was trying to achieve and make you realize just how close he came to achieving it.

If you've seen the first two, you need to see this third one. Not only does it wrap up the story in a nice, neat little package, but I think it's grossly under-appreciated. Judge it for what it is -- a low-budget B-movie. With that in mind, I think you'll be hard-pressed to find another film of its kind.

IT'S ALIVE III: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE opens with the infamous "taxi cab delivery" scene. Then, it shifts to a courtroom, where a man named Stephen Jarvis (Michael Moriarty) is fighting for the life of his caged, mutant son. The judge spares the creature, and the titular island is made into a sort of sanctuary for the killer offspring.

Of course, it's not long before it all goes terribly wrong, resulting in bloody death. It seems that the "kids" have a plan of their own. Writer / Director Larry Cohen finishes off his trilogy with the weaker, less entertaining of the films, though there are some effective parts, such as the "baby hunt".

Moriarty is good, sort of replacing John P. Ryan as the concerned parent, and the wonderful Karen Black co-stars as Jarvis' estranged wife, Ellen...