This review is the fourth in a Larry Cohen retrospective commissioned by Nate Biagiotti. Many thanks to Nate for supporting Post-Credit Coda through our Patreon. All other film reviews in this retrospective can be found here.
Director: Larry Cohen
The film begins as its best self. A street-level birthing and maiming incident spools out into an intense courtroom scene legislating the fate of the violently defective monster babies. The wonderfully melodramatic scene culminates in a courtroom panic that incites a captive monster baby to escape its confines and menace the Honorable Judge Watson (Macdonald Carey). Bloodshed is only avoided by the intervention of the baby's father, our designated protagonist Stephen Jarvis (Michael Moriarty). This rupturous demonstration of love coupled with the threat of violence convinces the Judge to banish the little creatures to a remote island where they may become... whatever... away from society.
Writer: Larry Cohen
Cast: Michael Moriarty, Karen Black, Laurene Landon, James Dixon, Gerrit Graham, Macdonald Carey, Neal Israel, Art Lund, Ann Dane
Runtime: 95 mins.
1987
I had held a lit candle of hope that the "It's Alive" movies could be one of the great unheralded horror trilogies. The first impressed me with its psychosocial insights, and the second expanded that scope ambitiously. It's Alive III: Island of the Alive postures at a grander narrative still, yet the end result feels so small in comparison.
The film begins as its best self. A street-level birthing and maiming incident spools out into an intense courtroom scene legislating the fate of the violently defective monster babies. The wonderfully melodramatic scene culminates in a courtroom panic that incites a captive monster baby to escape its confines and menace the Honorable Judge Watson (Macdonald Carey). Bloodshed is only avoided by the intervention of the baby's father, our designated protagonist Stephen Jarvis (Michael Moriarty). This rupturous demonstration of love coupled with the threat of violence convinces the Judge to banish the little creatures to a remote island where they may become... whatever... away from society.
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