Les monstres sont toujours vivants

After the first film It's Alive about a mutant baby that's a real killer fresh from the womb, it was decided a sequel was in order. The first must have made a few dollars, that is how these things are decided.

Returning from the first film is John P. Ryan the father who killed his own mutant and now has a mission in life, maybe to save others who are now showing up in the population. Which is why he visits Frederic Forrest and Kathleen Lloyd another expectant set of parents.

After that things get real silly as the all seeing government in the person of John Marley gets into the act. There's also an institute that wants to house and study the mutants that's headed by Andrew Duggan. All these plot elements combine for one bloody ending.

Not that the first film was a world beater, but it's Citizen Kane next to this.

It's Alive epitomizes the realization of the perennial fears: this could really happen and the (Frankenstien-esqe) ideal of setting something in motion that cannot be controlled or committing an act that you cannot repeal or take back. The First Its alive is truly an epic, we have Davis wanting to kill his monster-baby and evolving to the point of wanting to protect it--an adroit display of humanism. It Lives Again multiplies the fears of the first film exponentially by 3 (there are three babies) and the motives of the main characters evolve as well.

Part 3 still manages to pull on my heart-strings yet its tired-feeling. I look beyond the technical deficiencies of all three films and am captivated my their magic. Somehow fans allow themselves to watch King Kong 1933, Phantom of the Opera 1925, The Lost World 1925, and Niosferatu 1922 and three of these films don't have sound and all are shot in black and white and King Kong's effects are far out-dated. We have to look beyond a lot of things to really, to be carried away . . . too often our expectations are too high and we're not humbled in our approach to these genre pictures. A lot of us don't go to church because we feel its boring because there's nothing there . . . same with the movies . . . we have to allow ourselves to feel sometimes what's really there in order to love the films.

Weak follow-up to the original cult classic It's Alive is virtually a remake of the first film, but with three babies this time around instead of one. Dull, boring, talky horror flick with a disappointing score and just about all the action and scares confined to the end, but by then it is too late. Rick Baker actually did the poor effects for this inept sequel.

Rated R; Violence & Profanity.

It's cute! It's cuddly! It'll rip your head off! Writer / Director Larry Cohen's saga of babies gone bad continues with IT LIVES AGAIN.

In this dose of pernicious pablum, Frank Davis (John P. Ryan) crashes a baby shower in order to deliver the news that expectant parents, Jody and Eugene Scott (Kathleen Lloyd and Frederic Forrest) are about to hear the pitter-patter of tiny mutant feet!

If that's not enough, the government, led by Mr. Mallory (John Marley) is involved, ready to swoop in and make matters even worse! They're bent on mutant infanticide! Once the "baby" is born, the chase is on, winding up in a secret facility until the inevitable bloodbath.

Not a bad follow-up to the original...

Frank Davis (John P. Ryan) is still struggling with his child's death in the first movie. He tries to warn Jody (Kathleen Lloyd) and Eugene Scott (Frederic Forrest) against Mallory (John Marley). She's pregnant with another mutant baby.

This is the sequel to It's Alive (1974). This franchise is stuck between serious horror and campy B-movie. It's both. For the serious horror, this movie needs a better-looking baby. The special effects are not good enough. It's pretty bad. The franchise remains stuck in campy B-movie territory. I can imagine it going better, but this poor sequel is not unexpected.