The Black Sheep series looks back at Larry Cohen’s 1987 film It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive, starring Michael Moriarty
Larry Cohen isn’t really a horror guy, at least not in the same vein as his contemporary filmmakers like Wes Craven, John Carpenter, or Tobe Hooper. Cohen wasn’t even really the same type of director as he wrote almost 3 times as many projects as he directed. What he lacked in quantity for horror movies though, he more than made up for in quality. This quality started with 1974’s It’s Alive and moved through very different types of horror like God Told Me To, The Stuff, and Q the Winged Serpent. The only series of movies he was involved in was his trilogy of It’s Alive movies. While the first two were heavy hitters in terms of themes that were hidden under the guise of creature features, the third one had far less to say but is unfairly seen as less fun. 1987 was a weird year for the man, as I already talked about his other movie from that year in fellow Black Sheep A Return to Salem’s Lot. While that is the Black Sheep of Cohen’s career, the third It’s Alive movie is by far the black sheep of that series. Let’s take a look inside this particular baby carrier.
As I said, 1987 was a big year for Cohen in terms of output. Two sequels, two direct to video movies. Two movies that have more to offer than what’s on the surface. Originally, Larry Cohen and Hungarian director and eye patch connoisseur Andre de Toth came to Warner Brothers to pitch a remake of Andre’s own House of Wax, but Warner wanted something different, they wanted a name like Cohen to make a movie for their recent direct to video line. Ever the strategist and consummate filmmaker, Cohen agreed on the condition that he would be able to make two movies, and they agreed and gave him two recognizable franchises to work with. One of these was his own, It’s Alive, and the other was from one of their older titles, Salem’s Lot directed by Tobe Hooper. Go check out my defense of that movie for more information.
For the main cast, Cohen decided to use Michael Moriarty for the lead in both. He had already used Moriarty in both The Stuff and Q the Winged Serpent and even though others found the Emmy winner had to work with, Cohen liked his style and would kind of let him do what he wanted. He has played kind of a jerk, a super jerk, and a good guy for Cohen with all of them being believable. Moriarity still works today and has had great roles on both the big and small screen. James Dixon would come back as his cop character from the first two movies, being the only actor in all 3, and he has worked with Cohen more than anyone else appearing in more than just the director’s horror output. Karen Black, Laurene Landon, and the great Gerrit Graham also appear in meaty roles for this third installment.
Black has been in some stone-cold classics from Trilogy of Terror and Burnt Offerings to House of 1000 Corpses and Invaders from Mars. Landon was a stunner from her first screen appearance and has made a career with roles showcasing those talents like as a model in The Stuff or her role in Airplane 2 with a costarring role in the immortal Maniac Cop. Graham was one of the most underrated character actors of the 80s and 90s with credits like Child’s Play 2, CHUD 2, Chopping Mall, TerrorVision, and one of my all-time favorites, Used Cars with Kurt Russell. The cast delivers here as you would expect them to, and Cohen knows what he is doing. The movie is silly at parts, far sillier than the serious tone given off by the first two movies, but it still has something to say.
The movie opens with a woman about to give birth in a cab, and it doesn’t end well. She is having one of the now famous mutant kids and the cabby doesn’t want anything to do with it. The situation doesn’t end well for anyone, and the movie starts the way a movie like this should, with blood and screams, and intrigue. A funny note about that scene is that Warner Brothers used it in a clip reel for the final Dirty Harry movie where it shows various movies that the director, played by Liam Neeson has done. What a strange connection. The movie then moves to a courtroom drama as the first of many whiplash moves. It is funny that there is a courtroom scene considering that Moriarty’s 4 Emmys are from Law and Order. This is also the first part of the movie trying to have something bigger to say when the court decides they can put these children that nobody wants on an island of their own.
Moriarty plays Stephen Jarvis who is a father to one of the poor kiddos and it’s a little opposite from the first two movies. In those, the characters are every man who the press want to make into celebrities but here, Jarvis is an actor and now can’t get any work because of his parentage. His wife has left him and wants to remain anonymous and gets fairly pissed when he writes a tell all book. This doesn’t work though and 5 years later he is pulling an Al Bundy and selling shoes. He is asked to come to the island to look into the children who ae now grown as their life cycle is drastically different than a normal human and a team of scientists go with him. Credit to Moriarty because the first act of the movie he plays Jarvis with a lot of humanity and now that we have caught up to him, he is miserable and isn’t above making everyone around him miserable too. While we get the same blurred vision camera for the creatures, something I love that they kept consistent, we get a different look for the monsters.
The horror of babies being evil creatures exits and we now get something that looks more akin to Humanoids from the Deep. Are they people in suits? Yes. Is it charming as hell and Cohen paying homage to 50s B horror movies? Also, yes. The group that goes to the island is first terrorized by Stephen’s unpleasantness, particularly towards the female of the expedition but also picked off one by one until there is only Stephen and out detective friend who has stuck around for the whole series. Detective Perkins jumps the ship and swims to the island while Stephen stays on the boat with a few of the creatures, one of them he believes to be his son. It switches again in tone to a survivalist drama where Stephen narrates what’s going on via a captain’s log and Moriarty gets to completely own the movie instead of just being a standout.
The kids kick him off the ship and he ends up in Cuba as a prisoner of Castro. Cohen had time to flesh out the series in this third entry and also kind of do whatever the hell he wanted. Cohen, as stated, was a much more prolific screenwriter than he was a director and given the chance to expand on a series he had already put two movies into gives him plenty of room to breathe. Usually when a movie is all over the place it can be alarming and jarring but here it is a blast and full of pleasant surprises. It takes a near 180 from the first one and the whole series feels like the original Evil Dead trilogy in how it goes horror to horror comedy to almost outright satire. Stephen ends up back in the USA and the monster kids end up saving a woman from a gang before the local police do what they feel is the right thing and start blasting away.
The children find Karen Black and pick her up like Frankenstein’s Monster bringing the little girl back to town. From there Stephen miraculously becomes a good dude again and we get the reveal that the monster kids have been able to produce monster kids of their own. In a really unexpected but very welcome twist, Karen Black and Michael Moriarty end up getting back together to raise their grandchild like they agree they should have raised their own child in the first place. The original creatures from It’s Alive are not, well, alive, anymore due to their different life span but none of that matters to our main characters who drive off into the sunset with a new lease on life and a chance to make good on some of their past transgressions both with each other and the family they never gave a chance too.
Cohen is sneaky like that. He is able to imbue some good themes into his shlock. While A Return to Salem’s Lot put in thoughts on the AIDS crisis at its height, It’s Alive III decided to tackle parenthood and redemption. In a movie called It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive of all things. I don’t have any information on the budget and while the Salem’s Lot sequel was released briefly theatrically at the Cannes Film Festival, his other 1987 sequel was very much a straight to video affair. While it feels very much like a straight to video release, it does so in the best possible ways. The strange collection of actors, fun and loopy story, B movie roots, and confident script and direction from Cohen all make this a worthwhile watch.
Scream Factory did the right thing when they released the trilogy in a gorgeous box set of Blu-rays and each film is worth watching and exploring to see what they have to offer. It’s Alive III may indeed be more silly than its predecessors but that and nearly a decade off from the first sequel don’t slow down what the movie has to offer audiences. Whether you watch them in a row or just feel like visiting the island after many years or the first time, this Black Sheep is worth the time.
A couple of the previous episodes of The Black Sheep can be seen at the bottom of this article. To see more, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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