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It Lives Again

Play trailer Poster for It Lives Again R Released May 10, 1978 1h 31m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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47% Tomatometer 15 Reviews 27% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Parents take their fanged-monster baby to a secret institute studying more of the same.
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It Lives Again

Critics Reviews

View All (15) Critics Reviews
Variety Staff Variety Though this is all so much silliness, Cohen effectively uses a good cast topped by Frederic Forrest and Kathleen Lloyd to build up suspense for the slashing, growling attacks by the terrible tykes. Mar 26, 2009 Full Review Geoff Brown Time Out On the whole this is a good film in theory rather than practice. The script is written in the Albert Memorial style - ungainly in structure, weighed down with extraneous detail. Jun 24, 2006 Full Review Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness Proves poised in its balancing of humor, terror and tragedy. Rated: B+ Jan 26, 2006 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy The weakest of the trilogy, if not by a discernible margin. Rated: 2/4 Aug 29, 2021 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com The energy level of the first sequel hovers around the monotonous formula hobbling many sequels, throwing more of what it thinks the audience wants (killer babies) but actually delivering much less. Rated: 2.5/5 Aug 25, 2020 Full Review TV Guide Staff TV Guide The excellent first sequel to It's Alive expands the concept of the original and finds a more-confident Larry Cohen behind the camera. Rated: 3/5 Sep 26, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (64) audience reviews
Dave S Could there actually be a method to the madness of It Lives Again? Is it possible that it offers an opinion on the age-old abortion debate in America? Or could it be a commentary of some sort concerning human evolution? Possibly, but probably not. Larry Cohen's sequel to It's Alive features three troublesome mutant babies eating their way through the general populace…and that would be pretty much all that there is to the plot. The problems with the movie are extensive. Much of the dialogue is pointless, the acting is terrible, the editing has no sense of rhythm to it, the lighting is a mess, many shots are out of focus, and director Cohen proves time after time that he has no aptitude for framing shots or effectively blocking scenes. If you have to watch a movie about psychotic infants, stick with the original. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 10/22/23 Full Review Audience Member A good horror sequel. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/20/20 Full Review Audience Member A basic retread of the first movie. Though this one has a great ending and the leads are more likeable. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Writer/director Larry Cohen follows up his cult classic with this okay but not as good as the original sequel. The monster baby epidemic continues and now the father of the first film's killer monster baby is part of one extremist group seeking to warn parents of a government conspiracy to kill their monstrous and dangerous babies. Frederic Forrest and Kathleen Lloyd play the main new couple who Ryan tries to help. Like most of Cohen's films, he infuses his low budget exploitation films with social commentary and here he tackles the abortion debate, which is not a topic you often see in genre pictures. However, on a straight entertainment level, this film isn't as exciting or subversively funny as some of this other films, but it's still a entertaining film and worth checking out for people who enjoy films about monster babies and such (especially when you have Rick Baker doing the monster baby special effects). And Cohen reuses the Bernard Herrmann score from the first film since Herrmann has passed away by the time this film was made, so anytime there is a Bernard Herrmann score, that's a good thing. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member While it is a bit boring compared to the first one, Larry Cohen's It Lives Again is still an enjoyably insane piece of horror cinema that features an epidemic of evil babies. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member If You Thought One Baby Was Bad, Try Triplets--Decent follow up expanding on the original!! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews
It Lives Again

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Cast & Crew

The Amityville Horror 31% 52% The Amityville Horror Watchlist It's Alive III: Island of the Alive 50% 16% It's Alive III: Island of the Alive Watchlist The Legacy 19% 24% The Legacy Watchlist Maniac 40% 58% Maniac Watchlist Terror Train 47% 37% Terror Train Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Parents take their fanged-monster baby to a secret institute studying more of the same.
Director
Larry Cohen
Production Co
Larco Productions
Rating
R
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 10, 1978, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 1, 2009
Runtime
1h 31m
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