Die Wiege des Schreckens (1987)

Die Wiege des Schreckens: Directed by Larry Cohen. With Michael Moriarty, Karen Black, Laurene Landon, James Dixon. The mutant babies have been placed by court order on a deserted island. Appalled by the cycnicism and exploitation of the children by the legal system and the media, the man responsible for them leads an expedition to the island to free them.

“Stephen Jarvis is the father of the monster (where u0026quot;the monsteru0026quot; is another bloodthirsty infant). He gets involved with a court case that ends up getting the infants sent to an isolated island. But once the judge who ordered the infants away dies, different parties want them back in the spotlight.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMany people, including my horror reviewing colleague Don Normann, really dislike this film. It is considered the weakest of the three, the least popular and I would suspect that most consider it the cheesiest. I really liked it — this one, more than the other two, seemed to really hit on a variety of social commentaries. Writer and director Larry Cohenu0026#39;s strength is his social commentary. Actually, thatu0026#39;s almost his only strength — he has no budget, is poorly organized in his shooting schedules and writes much of his scripts on the fly (which is quite obvious).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTwo of horroru0026#39;s icons appear here: Michael Moriarty (as Stephen Jarvis) and Karen Black (as Ellen Jarvis). Black is probably now best known to modern audiences from Rob Zombieu0026#39;s u0026quot;House of 1000 Corpsesu0026quot;. Moriarty, on the other hand, is a Cohen staple — appearing in u0026quot;Qu0026quot; and u0026quot;Pick Me Upu0026quot;, for example. And this happens to be one of Moriartyu0026#39;s better roles (he has a very unique way of delivering dialog which works here but is dreadfully awful in u0026quot;Pick Me Upu0026quot;). I found him to be a good lead, especially in the improvised segments (such as the singing scene).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere is a good commentary on disease (does an infected child mean an infected parent) and a really good jab at Cuban-American relations. I think Cubau0026#39;s military obsession is played up a bit, but the part about them being human was a good one (and still relevant twenty years later). And the pharmaceutical company trying to destroy the infants so their drugs couldnu0026#39;t be blamed… very nice (and reminiscent of the Thalidomide scandal).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLastly, once youu0026#39;ve watched it, watch it again with audio commentary (if you get the chance). Cohenu0026#39;s explanations really add a new dimension to this picture, pointing out where Bob Kaneu0026#39;s wife comes in (Kane invented Batman), how many of the parts are just Cohenu0026#39;s friends and how a rubber chicken ended up on a deserted island. His justification for a variety of aspects of this film really help you understand what he was trying to achieve and make you realize just how close he came to achieving it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf youu0026#39;ve seen the first two, you need to see this third one. Not only does it wrap up the story in a nice, neat little package, but I think itu0026#39;s grossly under-appreciated. Judge it for what it is — a low-budget B-movie. With that in mind, I think youu0026#39;ll be hard-pressed to find another film of its kind.”