Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

It Lives Again Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson May 21, 2018

It Lives Again (1978) is being released as part of Shout! Factory's It's Alive Trilogy box set.

It Lives Again begins a few years after the events of the first film not in Seattle where "another one's been born" but in a suburban enclave in sunny Tuscon. Eugene Scott (Frederic Forrest) and his pregnant wife Jody (Kathleen Lloyd) are putting the wrap on a baby shower. Jody is examining the gifts for her newborn while Eugene is escorting the guests out. A pretty blonde asks a forlorn man seated on the family couch how he's doing but the guy just shrugs. The Scotts also don't know him until he identifies himself as Frank Davis (John P. Ryan), the beleaguered father of the "it" baby who was featured on national newscasts. Frank forewarns the young couple that he fears the expectant mother will also give birth to a destructive mutant. When Jody starts going into labor, Franks gives her the option of either accompanying him and a small team of doctors from Asten Laboratories to a clandestine location where the infant will be preserved for blood tests, etc. Or alternatively, the Scotts can allow government agents who are surveilling them to contain the newborn and terminate it. Larry Cohen does an effective job of gradually building suspense when he crosscuts between Jody experiencing contractions and Eugene calling the just-departed Frank in his motel room. Frank is outside conversing with the doctors and can't hear the phone ring with loud rock and roll blaring on the radio. So Eugene must drive his wife to the public hospital where there seems innumerable policemen awaiting their arrival. FBI honcho Mr. Mallory (John Marley), who has been tracking the Scotts, is ready in the delivery room but Frank gives him the stick-up and orders Jody to be transported into the Asten semi's mobil birth unit where she will deliver "Adam."

In a vintage audio commentary, Cohen professes that It Lives Again is one of the first pictures in which the audience roots for the monster to survive. Government agencies are the clear villains here and the script's use of bugging/homing devices is steeped in the era of Watergate and citizens' general mistrust. Cohen also thematically interweaves a tale of betrayal between Jody and her mother (played by Lynn Wood). It Lives Again is a solid sequel as Cohen deliberately tries to make it different from its predecessor. The overarching problem is that Cohen doesn't have much backbone to his story about Eugene and Jody. Yes, he makes them out as plain ordinary folks that we can relate to but there's little substance to their relationship beyond the plight of their offspring. One positive virtue is that Eugene starts as a schmuck but gains the audience's sympathy in the second half. Plausibility also becomes problematic when Dr. Perry (Andrew Duggan) decides to release the abnormal toddlers from their cages. Why would he do that without sufficient protection to defend himself?

In the commentary, Cohen derives a strong correlation between this film's lack of TV exposure and its lack of commercial success. He sort of misremembers that it recouped a fair amount of money, though. Lou Cedrone of The Baltimore Evening Sun reported that the picture failed after one week of local play and distributors withdrew it from most locations. Because it died during early runs, Warners retitled it It's Alive 2, according to entertainment columnist Joe Leydon. It did not get widely reviewed by many publications and response was overwhelming negative. Desmond Ryan of The Philadelphia Inquirer led the assault: "The sets and the acting...are of the standard generally found in porn films shot in motels." Although It Lives Again didn't have the same marketing ingenuity that was behind a revival of the first film, it used the same ploy. An image of three baby carriages contained this tagline on its poster: "The IT'S ALIVE Baby is back...Only now there are three of them."

It Lives Again Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

It Lives Again was first issued on DVD ca. 2004 in a box set titled It's Alive Collection 2009. All transfers were presented in 1.78:1. DVD Drive-In labeled it worst transfer of the three: "[It has] the most visible print damage and some muted fleshtones." IGN's Mike Bracken is more specific about its defects: "The print is marred by scratches, dirt, and specks throughout, with one of the earliest examples being right near the film's opening. Colors are muted and the darks are a little murky at times, making the whole film look less than stellar overall. However, even with these problems, this version looks far superior to the old VHS versions floating around out there." Fortunately, this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 rectifies most of these flaws. Presented in 1.85:1, the image boosts noticeably improved colors and is consistently clean throughout. Unfortunately, that's also one of its main weaknesses. The transfer looks too as de-noising and grain removal tools have been applied to smoothen the image. Exteriors and establishing shots (such as the aerial cityscape of Tuscon in Screenshot #20) retain grain but a vestige of it is only thinly evident. There are some scratches that blur the image during panning shot of the Scotts' neighborhood in #19. Shout! has encoded the video at an average of 35000 kbps along with a total bitrate of 41.32 Mbps for the whole disc. My video score is 3.75.

Twelve scene selections are available to choose for accessing It Lives Again.

It Lives Again Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! renders the movie's original monoaural as a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Dual Mono (1921 kbps, 24-bit). The master is in very good shape except for some crackle around the ten-minute mark. Dialogue is intelligible and clear enough to hear although I would suggest focalizing it to the center channel as opposed to giving it a wider dispersal using a stereo option on your receiver. Composer Laurie Johnson was a very good friend of Bernard Herrmann's and has re-recorded the master's score from the first film, reusing many selections throughout It Lives Again. Johnson adds a "stinger" and additional underscore that's minimal.

I watched the full film with the optional English SDH and it's largely complete with lyrics displayed for the Liverpool Express songs.

It Lives Again Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Producer/Director Larry Cohen - recorded around 2004, this is another stellar track from Cohen who imparts good production information and firm opinions about movie advertising. There are a few brief stretches of silence. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (0:42, 1080p) - a teaser trailer of It Lives Again complete with voice-over, a heart thumping, and a toy tune.

• Still Gallery (3:39, 1080p) - Shout! presents a slideshow comprising forty-two images of color still photographs, black-and-white pictures from Warner Bros.' press kit, visual concepts in the ad campaign, poster designs, and newspaper adverts.

It Lives Again Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It Lives Again is a pretty good sequel but I probably enjoy it the least in the series. Fenton Hamilton and Daniel Pearl's camerawork should be complemented, though, for their expert use of light and dark. Shout! Factory has restored the archival interpositive but too much DNR has been tacked on. Cohen's commentary is the sole highlight for the extras. A SLIGHT RECOMMENDATION for a respectable follow-up to a classic.