Scott LeBrun After requests from Warner Bros. to do another sequel to his landmark thriller "It's Alive", Larry Cohen responded with this tale set several years after the events of the first two movies.Only five of the murderous mutant babies remain, and after Stephen Jarvis (frequent Cohen star Michael Moriarty), a failed actor and father to one of them, makes a case for the kids to be spared, they are taken to a deserted tropical isle. There they will be left to their own devices, and won't be a danger to "normal" humans.Four years later, the judge (Macdonald Carey, 'Days of Our Lives') who presided over the trial passes away. Then an expedition is launched to the isle to make note of whatever progress the monster children have made. Stephen is asked to tag along.Kudos to Cohen for not keeping this *completely* predictable (not that much time is actually spent on the island), and for using this opportunity to make some pointed commentary on things like abortion, the AIDS epidemic, and the way that people will heartlessly exploit human interest stories for the sake of a few bucks. Cohens' script is frequently intriguing, and effective in a darkly comic way. (Gone is the very serious tone of the first two movies.) It allows Moriarty to once again be goofy and eccentric, albeit not quite to the extent that the actor giddily hammed it up in "Q". Also, "Island of the Alive" possesses one thing that some genre movies just don't have: an ability to make an emotional connection to the characters.The performances are better than you might ordinarily see in such fare. Co-starring are Karen Black ('Trilogy of Terror') as Stephens' ex-wife, James Dixon (another Cohen repertory player again reprising his role of Lt. Perkins), Gerrit Graham ("Used Cars") as a grandstanding attorney, Patch Mackenzie ("Graduation Day") as his opposing counsel, the incredibly sexy Laurene Landon ("Maniac Cop") as a prostitute, film director Neal Isreal ("Bachelor Party") and Art Lund ("Black Caesar") as scientists, and William Watson ("The Mack") as the head of a pharmaceutical company.The haunting musical theme by Bernard Herrmann ("Psycho") is once again utilized, with good new music by Laurie Johnson ("Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter"). Daniel Pearl ("The Texas Chain Saw Massacre") handles cinematography duties, and it's a real change of pace to see Cohen tackling a production that actually looks like it had a decent budget. Some viewers may be disappointed with the effects, but Cohen never holds on these shots for too, too long, and he does serve up some pretty entertaining gore.Overall, a nice conclusion to this initial trilogy, and followed in 2008 by a remake of the original movie.Seven out of 10.

Michael_Elliott It's Alive 3 (1987) ** (out of 4) A court orders that all mutant babies must be sent to a deserted island. Four years later a group goes there to see how the babies have grown up. I saw bits and pieces of this years ago but this was my first time going through the whole thing and man what a bitter disappointment. Larry Cohen takes this film a lot less serious and goes over the top with things but he didn't go far enough. The thought of seeing the babies grown up was a great idea but it takes an hour for us to reach the island. When the humor does come it isn't enough so most of the time the film is just a bore.

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.

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.