It Lives Again

“Another one’s been born in Seattle.”

Thus ended part one, and here in part two we have the immediate question – will we ever hear about Seattle again? After all, it takes money to go to Seattle and film, and inexpensive horror movies aren’t generally shot anywhere that isn’t the director’s house.

But let’s back up for a moment.

“It Lives Again,” begins at a baby shower, where a young and happy couple, Jody and Gene, are getting gifts and eating cake. Meanwhile, Frank, the dad from “It’s Alive,” is wandering around in the background.

He’s looking a little grey at this point, which is logical. If I had been the father of a kid who had gone on to kill nearly ten people, I’d probably have a few grey hairs as well.

As the party clears out, Frank stays behind, and we learn that both Gene and Jody don’t know who he is, or why he’s there. At which point we get a little recap/update of what’s been going on in the world. It seems that Frank was on the cover of Time magazine, and the subject of a “special program” on CBS. But went unrecognized by a couple dozen party guests. Interesting.

In a move that took me by surprise, the Seattle baby gets a mention – it seems the child was killed at birth.

Frank, it seems, has spent the years since his baby was gunned down traveling across the country and trying to help people who are about to give birth to killer kiddos. In one case he was too late, and in two other cases it was a false alarm.

But Frank is sure that this one is going to be the real deal, so he gives Gene and Jody a phone number and tells them to call him when Jody goes into labor.

At which point Frank goes back to his hotel and calls the doctor he’s working with.

Debates are debated and discussions are had, and a large truck arrives at Frank’s hotel. The truck is a delivery room on wheels, complete with a large steel cage designed to hold mutant spawn.

Unfortunately for Frank, Gene, and Jody, but fortunately for the movie’s plot, Frank is outside looking at the truck when Jody goes into labor, and Gene can’t reach Frank by phone.

So everyone heads to the hospital, including a massive number of police officers.

Gene is separated from Jody – and we’re introduced to a guy who has a name, but it only gets mentioned maybe once. So let’s just call him Old Guy, and we’ll note that he just cannot WAIT to kill this baby.

This will be a running theme for him.

Frank realizes that Gene and Jody must have tried to call him and didn’t get him, and that they also must have gone to the hospital. So he asks one of his doctor buddies to get him a medical bag and a clipboard.

Yes, that’s really his disguise. And using it, he really does walk straight past every police officer in three counties in order to get into the hospital.

Old Guy bumps into Frank, and Frank shows Old Guy his clipboard, which happens to have a gun hidden behind it.

Gang violence must erupt in that county constantly, because the cops are less than worthless.

Frank takes Old Guy hostage, the delivery truck rolls up, and everyone piles in. Frank has Old Guy drive the truck, while Frank keeps Old Guy at gunpoint.

The delivery happens. A doctor is mauled by the new baby. The truck is stopped at the state line, only the truck took a pit stop in a tunnel and now everyone has been piled into a van.

Except Frank. Frank is still in the truck, and moments from being arrested, when Old Guy says to let him go, with the admonishment that Frank belongs in a mental institution, and not in prison.

Oh, and Jody hasn’t been taken off the van, either. No idea why. Maybe they ran out of room in the van?

The new baby is taken to a house out in the hills, where we learn that a) this is not the only baby, b) the other two babies are now parentless, and c) a troop of doctors is looking after and learning about the babies. And also d) they named the kids Adam and Eve, and they should be able to mate 5-6 years.

Gene takes this all in stride.

Jody, meanwhile, ends up at home with her mother, who is none too pleased that her grandchild kills people. Through an elaborate ruse involving a pay phone, a bus, and a Bruce Lee movie, Jody is sequestered off to the house in the hills.

Unfortunately, mom is on to her, and helped the cops put a bug in Jody’s purse.

She will not be well remembered come Christmas, is my guess.

The head cop from the last movie gets a phone call, telling him that they’ve tracked the babies down and it’s his job to kill them. Can you imagine getting that phone call after two years of trying to put something like that behind you? How do you explain that one to your wife?

Meanwhile, over at the hiding place, the gang is all assembled. Jody arrives, but is told that the babies are sleeping and she can see them in the morning. She and Gene head up to their room, and they have a fairly understandable fight where she doesn’t want to be touched and he’s missed her. Though Gene claims he’s really just missed her and not “missed” her.

What I’m saying is that the little one is not getting a brother tonight.

Jody and Gene attempt to go to sleep in separate beds, but Gene just can’t relax, and subsequently heads out to the rather dirty pool located on the compound.

Then things start to fall apart.

One of the less-bright scientists decides to take Adam out of his cage (I thought the babies were sleeping!?) and have him run through a maze, but instead Adam attacks him and takes his keys.

I think we can all see where this is headed.

One scientist is killed in his bed.

Gene, still in the pool, it attacked by Eve. The cops break in and kill her, just in the nick of time.

Adam, meanwhile, is gunned down in the living room.

But Frank locates Gene and Jody’s baby and runs for the hills. This works out great right up until a security guard stops him, the baby panics, and Frank’s story comes to a brutal end.

Gene and Jody are collected and taken to a hospital, and we finally learn just what Old Guy’s deal is. It seems he was the father of the Seattle baby. The baby killed his wife, or so he thinks, and subsequently he gunned the baby down.

And then made it a life mission to kill mutant killer babies. I guess we all have our calling.

Gene and Jody volunteer to go to a house in the middle of nowhere and wait for the baby to come to them.

Then the movie realizes is going to be a little short, so we get a couple of scenes of some whiny brat having her birthday party. The kids seem to all hate the brat quite a bit, so they run off under the auspices of playing “hide-and-seek,” and one tantrum and a bush-beating later, the brat is almost attacked by… a rattlesnake.

One wonders if someone just had footage of a birthday party lying around, and decided to jam it into the film.

Back st Gene and Jody’s new digs, the parents sit and wait and watch their relationship fall apart, while waiting for the baby to arrive. Eventually, a pigeon in the attic leads to an open window, and the baby leaps in.

Mom and dad immediately fall in love with it.

The cops, meanwhile, figure that the open window is a signal that the house is under siege, and they race to the rescue.

Old Guy races in, gun drawn, and the wee one leaps upon his face and starts clawing, forcing Gene to shoot his own kid.

As the movie winds to a close, we see a happy pregnant couple walking down the street. They are stopped by Gene, who wants to talk to them about their baby. Or so he says. It’s possible he wants to talk about the book of Mormon. An experience like this changes a person.