It's Alive III: Island of the Alive Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson May 23, 2018

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) is being released as part of Shout! Factory's It's Alive Trilogy box set.

For the third installment of the It's Alive series, Larry Cohen wanted to present a seriocomic tone and take the story in a completely different direction. Whereas the mood of its predecessors was frequently dour and bleak, It's Alive III adds a nice touch of black humor to go with its intermittent moments of horror and gore. Stephen Jarvis (Michael Moriarty) is a part-time actor appearing in court trying to convince Judge Watson (Macdonald Carey) that his baby mutant will heed father's advice and stay under control. But the little monster doesn't take kindly to folks in the courtroom blabbering about his fate (especially the state prosecutor) and breaks through the bars of his steel cage. Judge Watson is sympathetic to the creature (who stays in chains) and reaches a alternative resolution to extermination by ruling that newborn mutants can reside on a secluded island virtually unknown to humans. Stephen is relieved but he has more personal problems to deal with. He's estranged from his glamorous wife Ellen (Karen Black) who backs off from him at the marina bar she works. At the local carnival, another woman flirts with Stephen and seduces him at her apartment. But she's shocked to learn that he's a father of one of these monsters. This is a powerful and effective scene that underscores the fear of AIDS and STDs during the late eighties.

When something happens to the judge, Lt. Perkins (James Dixon) visits Stephen at the kids shoe store at the mall to inform him that a team of scientists would like to visit this island and bring home one of the babies. No one is aware that hunters have recently flown to the site to try to kill the last and remaining mutants. Dr. Brewster (Neal Israel) has concocted guns that shoot sedatives to temporarily put the babies in a comatose state. But do the scientists have enough smarts and ammunition to survive the four-feet tall specimens and bring one back alive?

An "it" baby crawls the island.

In the recycled commentary, Cohen reminisces about how he signed a two-picture deal at Warner Bros. to direct A Return to Salem's Lot and Island of the Alive. The latter was to be included in Warners' new home video division. It's Alive III received some theatrical play but was quickly destined for the VHS market where it developed a cult following. Cohen delivers several movie in-jokes, particularly the opening scene which was a riff of Dirty Harry. If you listen very carefully to Laurie Johnson's score, you should hear a reference to the two-note motive of John Williams's Jaws theme. When Stephen is on a raft, there is a shark surrounding him (this is a stock shot that Cohen lifted from 1958's The Old Man and the Sea). Cohen and Warners' marketing personnel were probably aware that Jaws: The Revenge would be released later that summer so the shark motif is something they wanted to lampoon. Moriarty gives a terrifically amusing performance as he goes from being a celebrity author to a manic father.

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout! Factory has restored It's Alive III: Island of the Alive using a new 2K scan of the original film elements. Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the picture has a better grain structure and more organic appearance than It's Alive 2, which has some artificial sharpening. Extreme long shots of outdoor locations display a coarse grain. The greenery in the island's vegetation shows solid delineation. And look at the ocean's deep blue in Screenshot #20. There are very few artifacts on this digital intermediate print. This MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 carries a standard video bitrate of 35000 kbps, while the full disc sports a total bitrate of 41.46 Mbps. My video score is 4.25.

The 95-minute feature comes with twelve chapter breaks.

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

It's Alive III was originally mixed in stereo and receives a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track (2049 kbps, 24-bit). There aren't any age-related distortions or noticeable hiss. Spoken words are delivered cleanly. There is some nice discreteness and separation between the two front speakers. Laurie Johnson wrote an original score for this second sequel apart from adapting Herrmann's main theme from the original. Brassy chords accompany Stephen and the Infinity crew as they venture to the island. Music sounds warm on this uncompressed stereo mix.

I watched It's Alive III with the optional English SDH activated and can report no spelling or grammatical errors.

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Producer/Director Larry Cohen - this archival commentary contains more extended gaps than Cohen's other two tracks in the set. He talks about his frequent collaboration with Michael Moriarty and delivers some mini-background on the other actors. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Interview with Special Effects Makeup Designer Steve Neill (10:11, 1080p) - Neill discusses how he idolized Rick Baker and Dick Smith when he first got into the industry, how he designed the creature babies, and Larry Cohen's ways of working with the crew. In English, not subtitled.

• Trailer (0:45, upconverted to 1080) - a teaser trailer that shows a few clips from the film. Presented in 1.33:1 with DTS-HD MA 2.0 sound. This short trailer is upscaled from 480i.

• Still Gallery (2:50, 1080p) - a slide show of about thirty-three images from the making of It's Alive III. Many show Cohen on the set interacting with cast and crew.

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's Alive III is a fun studio indie that deftly balances self-parody and comedy with the horrific. Shout! Factory has brought the film to Blu-ray with top-drawer presentations in video and audio. Cohen's commentary doesn't contain as many anecdotes and nuggets as his other two tracks but it's worth listening to. The recently recorded interview with Steve Neill is a good addition but I wish it could have been longer, with Neill delving more into the pre-production aspects. A SOLID RECOMMENDATION for a better than average package.