GL84 Determined to prevent another incident, the group who battled the creatures previously spring into action when reports surface of another potential killer baby being born and bring it to an isolated study center only for one to escape which makes them try to track it down and kill it.This was quite a dull and unnecessary sequel. One of the few things that works here is the fact that the creatures are made a focal point of the for a much longer period of time than what had happened previously. Given more of an emphasis for being there in the area this time around, with the majority of the first half consisting of them getting the information out of the group and what their intentions are which carries into the need for the security at the hospital for the birth of the creature and the resulting chaos afterward. Consisting of the abduction and eventual hostage part in the truck where it really gets even bigger with the incidents in the back part of the truck, this here is a fine start to things which is later played off nicely in the later half where the creatures are loose in suburbia and have plenty of enjoyable encounters between the creatures and the swarm hunting them down. As this provides the action with some decent gore effects, these are what hold this one down over its rather large flaws. A lot of the film's problems stem from the same issue that befell the original in that there's just not a whole of interesting things going on here. Taking the guise of a loose remake where this starts off with the creatures' birth and the eventual escape from the hospital only this time it takes far longer to get to the point of the story which here makes no sense at all. The point of keeping mutant, bloodthirsty deformed freaks alive and healthy in the manner attempted here is not only colossally irresponsible but also moronic by keeping known threats to humanity alive. The fact that we don't really get much of anything about their point to be conducting the experiments on the creatures or what they hope to learn from them at the facility which makes their mission even more problematic overall. As these here are all in disservice to the pacing here, this one is just so dull and barely interesting that it feels a lot longer than the others which makes it incredibly hard to get into this one. Added together with the unimpressive action scenes that don't really mean much of anything that happens here is interesting, this one is quite the bland and unappealing effort.Rated PG: Violence and Language.

Michael In a direct sequel to Cohen's 1974's cult favourite "It's Alive!", Forrest and Lloyd take over as a couple playing host parents to a newborn 'sacrilige' being observed along with two fellow mutant tots by a mad-dish ("perhaps theirs is the race that will be able to adapt to the future") scientist.The script's impartial stance on the blindness of the 'authorities' against the plain stupidity of nature-tampering science, along with the excellent and affecting portrayal of parental suspended grief by the two leads, are sadly the film's only virtues.On the back of the cult critical plaudits poured over his "God Told Me To" the previous year Cohen seems to have transformed into the Tarantino of his day by the time of this production, resulting in an overly-discerning, archly facetious parody of his original. Following a coherent and workable first 20 minutes the babies escape, characterisation fades into evanescent memory, and suspenselessly-edited sequences telegraphed as 'shock' but ending up as anything but become the order of the day.Cohen's career subsequent to this was a pretty unambiguously hit ("Q") and miss ("Wicked Stepmother", "Return to Salem's Lot") affair. Visually it's all pretty ugly, and just like with the aforementioned Mr T it's hard to discern (ie care) whether or not the amateur slapdashness is in fact sick slickness. Hardly a gracious return to American movies for Eddie 'Lemmy Caution' Constantine, either.

Backlash007 ~Spoiler~ I was very surprised that I liked the original It's Alive. I liked it a lot actually, enough to buy it. I'm not a big fan of Larry Cohen; I recognize his oddball talents and his contributions to the genre, but I just don't love his movies. Later I saw It's Alive III and that was exactly the crapfest I was expecting. It's Alive III is more like the usual Cohen goofiness. It Lives Again falls somewhere in between the two. It's not nearly as good as It's Alive but it's far superior to Part III. However, I will never sit down to watch it again. It Lives Again seems to be a pointless sequel to me. John P. Ryan returns as Frank Davis and the story centers on him informing a new couple that they have a "monster" baby on the way. So Davis talks the couple (played well enough by Frederic Forrest and Kathleen Lloyd) into joining the underground and saving the mutant baby. The first part of the movie is quite compelling. Once again Cohen creates the question of whether these babies should become victims of infanticide or should they be allowed to live? Unfortunately, this time he answers the question, definitively. How can we side with the babies after they kill the sympathetic Davis character and all of the doctors who were attempting to save them? After Frank Davis dies, I hated the babies and didn't care what happened to them. No, scratch that. I wanted the evil things to die. I got my wish but I still wasn't satisfied because Cohen still tries to make them sympathetic in the end. It just didn't work. While I regard the original as a minor classic, this one is avoidable.

Coventry The happily married couple Eugène and Jody Scott are eagerly making preparations for the birth of their first baby when Frank Davies, the unfortunate father of the first monster-baby adventure, comes to their house to warn them that their child will be a malevolent creature. He succeeds in convincing the parents that the baby should be born outside the hospital, where doctors and police men are going to kill it right after leaving the womb... After a hectic escape from the authorities, Eugène and Jody flee with their to a secret observation institute where already two companions in distress are homed. Larry Cohen's successor to his own mini cult-classic "It's Alive" is a lot more appealing than I first feared! Here, even more than in the original, Cohen gives a human and dramatic angle to the story by focusing on the initially perfect family situation of the Scotts and examining this exact same relationship afterwards! The result is a touching social drama in which the monstrous baby is secondary to the agony of parents left behind! "It Lives Again" only turns into an exciting horror movie half way through, when the 3 ferocious babies break loose and start a murder spree again. Especially in this second half, Cohen proves his brilliant horror-directing skills by suggesting a whole lot...but showing little. The kids' birthday party is an excellent example of this! This sequel is less blackly humorous than the original and it looks like the gore-budget was even smaller than four years earlier. Yet, I found it more tense than the first, with some ingeniously, but simply conceived shock-images such as the babies crawling slowly under sheets. If you're a fan of cheap B-horror and if you're familiar with the other marvelous work of Larry Cohen ("The Stuff", "God Told Me To", "Maniac Cop"...) you should definitely give this a try. I'm going to check out the final chapter "Island of the Alive" soon as well and I hope it equally entertaining.