It's Alive III: Island of the Alive

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive

1987 "They do something worse than kill. They multiply."
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive

4.9 | 1h35m | R | en | Horror

The mutant babies have been placed by court order on a deserted island. Appalled by the cynicism and exploitation of the children by the legal system and the media, the man responsible for them leads an expedition to the island to free them.

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4.9 | 1h35m | R | en | Horror | More Info
Released: May. 27,1987 | Released Producted By: Warner Bros. Pictures , Larco Productions Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

The mutant babies have been placed by court order on a deserted island. Appalled by the cynicism and exploitation of the children by the legal system and the media, the man responsible for them leads an expedition to the island to free them.

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Cast

Michael Moriarty , Karen Black , Laurene Landon

Director

Daniel Pearl

Producted By

Warner Bros. Pictures , Larco Productions

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Reviews

lastliberal 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.
gavin6942 Stephen Jarvis is the father of the monster (where "the monster" is another bloodthirsty infant). He gets involved with a court case that ends up getting the infants sent to an isolated island. But once the judge who ordered the infants away dies, different parties want them back in the spotlight.Many people, including my horror reviewing colleague Don Normann, really dislike this film. It is considered the weakest of the three, the least popular and I would suspect that most consider it the cheesiest. I really liked it -- this one, more than the other two, seemed to really hit on a variety of social commentaries. Writer and director Larry Cohen's strength is his social commentary. Actually, that's almost his only strength -- he has no budget, is poorly organized in his shooting schedules and writes much of his scripts on the fly (which is quite obvious).Two of horror's icons appear here: Michael Moriarty (as Stephen Jarvis) and Karen Black (as Ellen Jarvis). Black is probably now best known to modern audiences from Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses". Moriarty, on the other hand, is a Cohen staple -- appearing in "Q" and "Pick Me Up", for example. And this happens to be one of Moriarty's better roles (he has a very unique way of delivering dialog which works here but is dreadfully awful in "Pick Me Up"). I found him to be a good lead, especially in the improvised segments (such as the singing scene).There is a good commentary on disease (does an infected child mean an infected parent) and a really good jab at Cuban-American relations. I think Cuba's military obsession is played up a bit, but the part about them being human was a good one (and still relevant twenty years later). And the pharmaceutical company trying to destroy the infants so their drugs couldn't be blamed... very nice (and reminiscent of the Thalidomide scandal).Lastly, once you've watched it, watch it again with audio commentary (if you get the chance). Cohen's explanations really add a new dimension to this picture, pointing out where Bob Kane's wife comes in (Kane invented Batman), how many of the parts are just Cohen's friends and how a rubber chicken ended up on a deserted island. His justification for a variety of aspects of this film really help you understand what he was trying to achieve and make you realize just how close he came to achieving it.If you've seen the first two, you need to see this third one. Not only does it wrap up the story in a nice, neat little package, but I think it's grossly under-appreciated. Judge it for what it is -- a low-budget B-movie. With that in mind, I think you'll be hard-pressed to find another film of its kind.
fertilecelluloid An island of mutant babies! Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, in Larry Cohen's hands, it's more amusing than great, although the island setting is quite evocative. The real pity once again is Cohen's direction. Is the guy making a black comedy or a serious horror pic? I don't think he's sure. He's definitely taking every opportunity to lather in his trademark social commentary, and I don't have a problem with that, but he abuses his own premise here with sheer silliness.The babies look like Garbage Pail Kids crossed with Party Beach monsters. They're big and they're greasy and they wear hand-me-down rags that don't fit. They still kill and they're still sympathetic tragics, but they've lost their mystery, their awe.It's a shame the great artwork didn't reflect the movie.
Backlash007 ~Spoiler~ "It's one of them!" A pretty fine opening scene is the best part of this movie. After that, it goes downhill pretty quick. The killer babies are back, and this time they are sent to an abandoned island so they can no longer be a threat to humanity, and vice versa. It sounds like a great idea, but too much of the movie does not take place on said island. I envisioned an isolated island movie where some activists or other parties go searching for the babies, get stranded on the island, and mayhem ensues. Sadly, that is not the case. The babies aren't looking as good as they used to either. The first film succeeds by keeping the baby in the shadows, never quite revealing it. This film fails to generate any suspense because the creatures don't hold up so well fully exposed at great length. Larry Cohen even admitted this. The cast includes Cohen's go-to-guy, Michael Moriarty, and the always hammy Karen Black. So the acting is about what you expect. Moriarty has playing odd characters down to a science. They are still using the Bernard Herrmann score so that's one good thing they've got going for them.