On Saturday, UBC2C Independent Film workshop participants will have a special opportunity to have lunch with writer/director/producer Larry Cohen, in a segment called “Guerilla Filmmaking Meets the Mainstream“.
Larry Cohen started his career in television, writing on many shows and creating the cult classics Branded and The Invaders. He wrote, produced, and directed his first feature film, Bone, in 1972. He came to prominence with It’s Alive (1974), a horror film about a mutant killer baby- notable for its satirical black humor. It’s Alive is also noted for being scored by Bernard Herrmann. Cohen made two sequels, It Lives Again (1978) and It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987).
Additional credits include Full-Moon High (1981), Q (aka The Winged Serpent, 1982), with Michael Moriarty, David Carradine, and Candy Clark and The Stuff (1985). Cohen’s most complex film, as well as his darkest, is God Told Me To (a.k.a. Demon, 1976) in which he mixes science fiction and horror with religious satire. In 1987, Cohen made an unofficial sequel to Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot, A Return to Salem’s Lot starred Michael Moriarty and Samuel Fuller. Cohen has also made thrillers such as The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977), Special Effects (1984), and The Ambulance (1990).
In 1998, Cohen wrote Phone Booth which was eventually directed by Joel Schumacher in 2002 and starred Colin Farrell. Cohen was also credited with the story for the 2004 release Cellular, another thriller with a telecommunications theme. In 2006, Cohen returned to directing the episode “Pick Me Up” of the Showtime series Masters of Horror.
