The Sequel to IT’S ALIVE, made by the original film’s late creator Larry Cohen. Released in 1978, IT LIVES AGAIN wasn’t the success the former film was, most likely because it’s less scary and more thoughtful, and in terms of genre orientation much closer to science fiction than horror. From a conceptual standpoint IT LIVES AGAIN is impressive, encompassing themes like abortion, evolution and the limits of parental love, meaning it’s a typical Larry Cohen product–i.e. a pic that’s intelligently scripted but not particularly well filmed.
…less scary and more thoughtful, and in terms of genre orientation much closer to science fiction than horror.
It begins at a party thrown by the pregnant Jody Scott and her husband Eugene in their Tucson, AZ home. The Seattle-based Frank Davis, the harried protagonist of IT’S ALIVE, is among the guests and, after the party is over, informs the couple that their unborn child is set to be a man eating mutant like the one Frank sired in the previous film. A government agency has been secretly monitoring pregnancies to see if another mutant child is about to be born, and have found that Jody’s offspring is the next in line. Police have been notified, and surround the hospital where Jody is set to give birth.
From a conceptual standpoint IT LIVES AGAIN is impressive, encompassing themes like abortion, evolution and the limits of parental love…
There Frank turns up with a gun, and forces Jody into a specially designed mobile hospital unit. There she gives birth and the child is taken to a secluded mansion (actually Larry Cohen’s own Coldwater Canyon residence) owned by a shadowy organization. They seek to make sure the kid survives, believing it to be the inception of a new species.
The Scotts are taken to stay in the house, where two more mutant babies are being kept. Inevitably the babies grow anxious and attack their captors, including Frank. It all ends up back in the Scotts’ house, to which Jody and Eugene return with their hungry baby on their heels.
IT LIVES AGAIN was given a more generous budget than most of Larry Cohen’s previous movies, but the filmmaking is distractingly cut-rate. The weakest portions are the scare sequences, which tend to be choppy and hard to follow—due most likely to the fact that Cohen was evidently trying to keep the Rick Baker designed mutant babies off-screen as much as possible. Another problem is with the double vision baby POV shots, which are plentiful but serve very little purpose.
…Cohen was evidently trying to keep the Rick Baker designed mutant babies off-screen as much as possible.
Cohen’s casting choices, as they usually were, are interesting. They include APOCALYPSE NOW’S Frederick Forrest as Eugene, the French B movie legend Eddie Constantine as a shadowy bad guy and THE GODFATHER’S John Marley as a government agent/doctor. As for the noisy and determinedly old-fashioned Bernard Hermann score, one’s reaction to it is strictly a matter of opinion; I found it annoying.
See Also: IT’S ALIVE III: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE
Vital Statistics
IT LIVES AGAIN
Warner Bros./Larco Productions
Director/Producer/Screenwriter: Larry Cohen
Cinematography: Fenton Hamilton, Daniel Pearl
Editing: Curt Burch, Louis Friedman, Carol O’Blath
Cast: Frederic Forrest, Kathleen Lloyd, John P. Ryan, John Marley, Andrew Duggan, Eddie Constantine, James Dixon, Dennis O’Flaherty, Melissa Inger, Victoria Jill, Bobby Ramsen, Glenda Young, Lynn Wood