The chill doesn't always fade when the credits roll. Sometimes, it lingers, whispers from the static snow of a rewound VHS tape. Four years after Larry Cohen unleashed a wave of parental paranoia with It's Alive, the nightmare wasn't over. It was multiplying. It Lives Again (1978) crawled onto screens and eventually video store shelves, proving that some horrors are hereditary, spreading like a contagion through the quiet anxieties of suburban life. It wasn't just one monstrous birth anymore; it was a burgeoning, underground crisis.
The Echo of Tiny Footsteps
Picking up where the chilling original left off, the film wisely shifts focus while keeping the architect of the initial dread, Frank Davis (John P. Ryan, reprising his role with weary gravity), haunting the periphery. This time, we follow Eugene and Jody Scott (Frederic Forrest and Kathleen Lloyd), another couple facing the terrifying prospect of bringing one of those babies into the world. But now, there's a network – a secret society led by Davis, dedicated to protecting these mutated infants from a government determined to exterminate them. The intimate, domestic horror of the first film explodes outwards into a paranoid thriller, echoing the societal anxieties of the late 70s – distrust of authority, the fear of the unknown festering within the familiar.
Cohen's Calculated Chaos
Larry Cohen wasn't just a director; he was a cinematic force of nature, known for his audacious concepts and famously guerrilla filmmaking tactics. It Lives Again feels every bit a Cohen production – raw, energetic, and filmed with a sense of urgency that often mirrored his legendary permit-dodging methods on the streets of Los Angeles. While perhaps lacking the raw, shocking novelty of its predecessor, the sequel expands the mythology effectively. Cohen uses the wider scope to explore themes of persecution, parental instinct twisted into fanaticism, and the ethical grey areas of protecting monsters. The tension isn't just will the baby attack? but who are the real monsters here? The scenes where the secret network intercepts potential parents or clashes with government agents have a gritty, almost documentary-like feel at times, a testament to Cohen's ability to wring atmosphere from low budgets and real locations. He wasn't afraid to make things feel messy and unpredictable, much like life itself – albeit a life punctuated by murderous newborns.
Faces in the Shadows
Frederic Forrest, always a compelling screen presence (think Apocalypse Now, Valley Girl), brings a grounded desperation to Eugene Scott. He’s the everyman caught in an impossible situation, torn between societal pressure and a nascent, terrifying paternal instinct. Kathleen Lloyd matches him as Jody, portraying the complex fear and eventual fierce protectiveness of a mother facing an unimaginable reality. But it's John P. Ryan as Frank Davis who anchors the film to its predecessor. His transformation from grieving, vengeful father to the almost cult-like leader of this mutant baby underground is fascinating, his eyes reflecting a deep trauma that fuels his dangerous crusade. You believe he believes, and that’s unsettling.
The supporting cast is filled with familiar character actors, adding to that specific texture found in many 70s and early 80s genre films. It feels populated by real, worn faces, not just Hollywood gloss.
Creature Feature Realities
Let's talk about the babies. While Rick Baker's original creature design remains iconic, the challenge here was scaling up. We see more of the infants in It Lives Again, sometimes working in concert. Do the practical effects hold up perfectly today? Perhaps not under harsh digital scrutiny. But viewed through the haze of memory, projected onto a flickering CRT screen, they retain a certain uncanny power. There’s a grotesque, tangible quality to the puppetry and makeup that CGI often lacks. The quick cuts, the use of shadow, and Bernard Herrmann's repurposed, still-haunting score from the original film (a masterstroke, even in its reuse) all work to maximize their impact. The scene involving the baby in the experimental pressure chamber – remember that? It still carries a jolt of weird, claustrophobic dread. Doesn’t that jerky, unnatural movement still feel unnerving?
A Legacy Continued, Not Surpassed
It Lives Again is a solid, often genuinely creepy expansion of the original concept. It trades some of the intimate terror for a broader conspiracy narrative, which works reasonably well but inevitably dilutes the singular focus that made It's Alive so potent. Cohen’s direction remains inventive, and the performances lend weight to the inherently B-movie premise. It feels less like a cash-grab sequel and more like a genuine continuation of the story Cohen wanted to tell, exploring the societal implications of his monstrous creations. While it didn't quite achieve the cult status of the first film, finding this tape tucked away in the horror section of the local video store always promised a uniquely unsettling evening. It was part of that wave of films that made you eye newborns with just a tiny bit more suspicion.
VHS Heaven Rating: 6.5/10
- Justification: It Lives Again is a worthy, ambitious sequel that successfully expands the world of It's Alive. Cohen's direction is resourceful, and the performances (especially Ryan and Forrest) are strong. It maintains a palpable sense of dread and paranoia. However, it loses some of the raw, focused intensity of the original by broadening the scope, and the increased visibility of the babies occasionally lessens their mystery and menace compared to the first film's masterful restraint. It's a strong entry in the Cohen canon and a solid piece of 70s creature-feature/conspiracy horror, essential viewing for fans of the original, even if it doesn't quite reach the same heights.
Final Thought: It’s a testament to Larry Cohen’s bizarre genius that he didn’t just make one killer baby movie, but spun it into a franchise that, for a moment there, felt like a genuine, terrifying possibility lurking just beneath the surface of everyday life. This tape definitely earned its place on the weirder shelves of VHS Heaven.