It Lives Again

Cohen gives his sequel to It's Alive a human angle by placing his monster - a large baby of ferocious tendencies - well inside a normal family context and examining the strain this puts on relationships (Kathleen Lloyd is particularly touching as the wife). But 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. And Cohen remains a director of parts, capable of imaginatively conceived shocks once the monster babies being kept under observation get on the rampage (crawling about under bedclothes, putting feet into birthday cakes), but less capable of providing a cumulative effect.