It’s Alive Trilogy Gets Blu-ray Boxset From Scream Factory On May 15

Disc Announcements, News

Larry Cohen in the mid-70s was already legendary as a director with back to back hits with the iconic Fred Williamson. Hell Up in HarlemBlack Caesar packed theaters around the cities. But Cohen wanted to go beyond and worked his way into the world of nightmares with It’s Alive. The film has a complicated history since the studio executives that green lit the flick were gone by the time the finished movie was delivered. The film was given an extremely small release in 1974 and vanished from the lack of true support. But Cohen didn’t give up. He finally found friendly new ears at the studio and in 1977, the movie was released with the line “There is only one thing wrong with the Davis baby. It’s alive.” The film finally became a hit and spawned two sequels. Now all three films will be brought together on Blu-ray for The It’s Alive Trilogy boxset on May 15. Here’s the press release from Scream Factory:

THE IT’S ALIVE TRILOGY
FOR THE FIRST TIME ON BLU-RAY,
WITH NEW BONUS FEATURES,
ON MAY 15, 2018

For the first time on Blu-ray, and in a new, deluxe box set, the It’s Alive trilogy is reborn! On May 15, Scream Factory will release the It’s Alive Trilogy in a 3-disc set packed with bonus features, including new interviews, and new 2K scans of each film.

It’s newborn and … It’s Alive … and murder is what it knows best! A proud couple’s bundle of joy is really a newborn terror in filmmaker Larry Cohen’s cautionary cult hit that tapped into environmental fears. The horror grows when multiple child monsters rampage in the first sequel It Lives Again as two brave parents try to stop them by becoming the bait for their spree. The now global mutants are rounded up and relocated to a far-flung island in It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive. Will a parent’s greatest nightmare become the world’s gravest fear? Find out … if you dare.

It’s Alive is the first film of the classic trilogy from writer/director Larry Cohen about murderous mutants – and its birth was chillingly midwived by the crucial contributions of two Academy Award® winners*: makeup master Rick Baker (who created the makeup and “played” the infant monster) and composer Bernard Herrmann.

Is it human? Is it a beast? Whatever it is, It Lives Again in this second film in cult filmmaker Larry Cohen’s Alive Trilogy. Once again, Cohen brings to the screen a hideous threesome of mutant baby monsters that are the evolutionary response to man’s polluted environment. These frightened creatures lash out with deadly claws at what they don’t understand. There are only three, but they could reproduce into uncontrollable millions if someone doesn’t destroy them. Fredric Forrest (Apocalypse Now) and Kathleen Lloyd (The Car) star as the loving parents of one of the monstrous creatures. Parental love, however, is no match for these hell-spawned mutants. Their wild blood binge must be stopped. Will the next stage of their evolution become our last?

In It’s Alive III: Island Of The Alive, Michael Moriarty (Q: The Winged Serpent) and Karen Black (Trilogy of Terror) star as Stephen and Ellen Jarvis, the distraught parents of one of the new mutant children. They’ve watched in horror as government death squads roamed the earth, shooting the humanoids on sight. They’ve suffered through the court hearings that sentenced their child and other surviving mutants to a remote, uninhabited island. And their nightmare continues … because the abandoned creatures are now grown … and they are coming back home to the society that created and rejected them. And no one who stands in their way will live.

IT’S ALIVE TRILOGY SPECIAL FEATURES

IT’S ALIVE:
· NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
· NEW Cohen’s Alive: Looking Back at the It’s Alive Films featuring interviews with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen, actors James Dixon, Michael Moriarty and Laurene Landon and more…
· NEW It’s Alive at the Nuart: The 40th Anniversary Screening with Larry Cohen
· Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
· Radio Spots
· TV Spots
· Theatrical Trailer
· Still Gallery

IT LIVES AGAIN:
· NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
· Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
· Theatrical Trailer
· Still Gallery

IT’S ALIVE 3: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE:
· NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
· NEW interview with Special Effects Makeup Designer Steve Neill
· Audio Commentary with writer/director Larry Cohen
· Trailer
· Still Gallery

*Rick Baker: Best Makeup for 1981: An American Werewolf In London; 1987: Harry And The Hendersons; 1994: Ed Wood; 1996: The Nutty Professor; 1997: Men In Black; 2000: How The Grinch Stole Christmas; 2010: The Wolfman
Bernard Herrmann – 1941: Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture, All That Money Can Buy

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.