It's Alive III: Island of the Alive

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.

Larry Cohen returns after nearly a decade to finish off his mutant baby trilogy with mixed results. Stephen Jarvis (Michael Moriarty) battles in court for the rights of the mutant baby he had with his wife Ellen (Karen Black). The sympathetic judge orders all of the babies to be placed on an island. 5 years later, a scientific team gets together to visit the island and check the progress. Naturally, Jarvis is brought along because of his ability to communicate with the mutants.

Cohen certainly has tons of ideas with this one. This is a court room drama, KING KONG adventure, and urban chase thriller all in one. Heck, he even throws in an out of nowhere tangent where Jarvis ends up in Cuba. I would say maybe 50% of the ideas work, with the island stuff (shot in beautiful Hawaii) being the highlight. Cohen is also betrayed by the FX for the grown mutants, which look like the babies on steroids. Moriarty also gives quite a performance as the sarcastic Jarvis. There is a great cast alongside Moriarty and Black including Gerrit Graham, Laurene Landon, and director Neal Israel. Also, Cohen regular James Dixon returns in his biggest role to date as Lt. Perkins, the only character to appear in all three films (outside of the killer kids).

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.

A father fights for the right for his mutant child to live, the court grants that and his child plus another 4 are sent to an island to live.

It was Warners Brothers idea for a third It's Alive film, which would be shot back to back with Return to Salem's Lot. It was meant to be release straight to video with RTSL, but it got a limited theatrical release.

This film had a little bit more money than that of the 2 previous films, but this time around the film is an over the top black comedy compared to the bleak and serious tone of the first two films, which had subtle humour.

This film was far less effective in the horror and atmospheric department, but not the laughs and it's been more action packed than the previous films. Though it is a stupid and lightweight film, it was still quite fresh (with a different take on the Alive films) and enjoyable to watch… that's if you're in the right frame of mood.

Cohan has a knack of casting the right people, with reasonable performances or you can call them hammy from Karen Black playing the mother to one of the babies and James Dixon (only one in all 3) as Detective Perkins and the standout performance and scene stealer would have to be Michael Moriarty as the father. He brings a strong central character that has a weird sense of humour and goes suddenly bananas with his lunatic behaviour when the film goes along.

Not only is the casting good, but also the script is full of wit and satirical comments (like the other 2 films) on American and Cuban relations, people's emotions, Aids and the media. The pace of the film is perfect and Daniel Pearl (The Texas chainsaw massacre) brings another element with his cinematography and lighting. The score is alright and the same for the atmosphere. The effects are pretty lame, with stop motion, puppets and people in rubber costumes. Too much of the creatures are shown, making it laughable (especially the grown-up versions of the babies), but that's what makes this fun viewing.

The film seems to lose itself and becomes incredibly stupid when the grown up mutant's decide to leave the island and head back to the mainland. Some of those scenes and its humour is totally cringe-worthy, but for what its worth… It's nothing but over the top cheese, it's not great but otherwise quite amusing.

3/5

Starring: Michael Moriarty and Karen Black.

A TV actor is plagued with a mutant baby that he wants to live. The mutant babies are sent to an uninhibited island. 5 years later the washed up actor is a shoe salesman because no one will hire him, and he decides to find his baby, and make a trip to the island. Once on the island, he learns that the babies have grown up, and the baby wants to meet it's mother (a waitress played by Karen Black). Before the trip to the island this film is quite entertaining, and once on the island it becomes extremely stupid. I was entertained enough through the movie, but it gets stupider than any of the other films. It seems as though the gore and language were amped up a level. Overall it was stupid, but it's entertainment value made it on the same level as the other 2 films.

My rating: ** out of ****. 94 mins. R for Language, Violence, and some Sex.