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.

I am a big fan of Larry Cohen movies. So absurdly and poorly written and executed that they are hilarious. This one contains some really funny scenes. Trivia- in the shoe store Mr. Moriarty says "plunk your magic twanger froggy." This stuck in my head a very bizarre moment (actually I re-winded and puzzled over it several times) and I later found out that it is a quote from "the frogger song" released on a "pacman fever" album in the 1980s. Both before and after I found out what the reference was to I wondered what drugs the writers were on. I bought the DVD. You don't have to see the other It's Alive movies to enjoy this one. You just have to like off the wall B-movies.

~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.

Yes, this movie has some laughable plot implications, some over-the-top special effects, and some less than stellar acting, but all in all I found it quite enjoyable and interesting. Director/writer Larry Cohen opens with a scene in a a cab where a woman is about to have a baby. We know what is going to happen from the onset, but Cohen paces the opening scene very nicely. This sets the atmosphere of a society still being intruded on by these mutant, deadly infants that were both the subject of It's Alive! and It Lives Again!. Next, we are taken into a court room and presented with the facts of Michael Moriarity's fight to keep his baby alive despite a large group that want to see it obliterated. This scene is done quite effectively, even though Moriarity gives one of his usual, yet convincing, performances of a man that seems not to care but does(?) Anyway, I have always had problems figuring out Moriarity's motivation at times, but I think he and Cohen were going for more of a black comedy approach to this material. Thus it has dark edges to it, yet is really lighter weight material. Anyway, Moriarity convinces the court and in particular the judge, played nicely by MacDonald Carey, to come up with some alternative living accommodations for these infants - thus comes the Island of the Alive. Well, from there things go kind of down hill in terms of plot. The babies grow rapidly and we turn to five years later: Moriarity, James Dixon(again as the Lt.), and a host of scientists set off to monitor the rate of growth, etc... of the babies for government reasons. You can guess what happens from there on. The end gets very implausible but is fun and never takes itself very seriously(like the first two movies). We see a lot more of the babies here and are even given an explanation for why they are mutants. I enjoyed this one more than the second but think all three make for one of the very rare treats in horror - a horror trilogy. I also liked the whole Cuba interlude but would have loved even more a reverse of who landed on Cuba and what happened after the landing. Now that would have been a real hoot!