Cult horror films director Larry Cohen dies aged 77

By Press Association

March 24 2019, 9:13 pm

Larry Cohen, pictured with his wife, has died (Phil McCarten/AP)

Larry Cohen, the maverick B-movie director of cult horror films like It’s Alive and God Told Me To, has died at the age of 77.

Cohen’s friend and spokesman, the actor Shade Rupe, said Cohen died on Saturday in Los Angeles surrounded by loved ones.

Cohen’s films were low-budget movies that developed cult followings, spawned sequels and gained esteem for their reflections of contemporary issues.

His 1974 It’s Alive, about a murderous mutant baby, dealt with the treatment of children.

His New York-set 1976 satire God Told Me To depicted a series of shootings and murders carried out in religious fervour.

Cohen directed Bette Davis’s last film Wicked Stepmother in 1989.

More recently, he wrote the 2002 Colin Farrell thriller Phone Booth and 2004’s Cellular, with Chris Evans.