Contamination (1980)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Luigi Cozzi

Writers:

Luigi Cozzi (screenplay)
Luigi Cozzi (story)

Release Date:

June 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

You can feel them in your blood!

Plot:

A former astronaut helps a government agent and a police detective track the source of mysterious alien pod spores, filled with lethal flesh-dissolving acid, to a South American coffee plantation controlled by alien pod clones.

Plot Keywords:

Egg | Alien | Police | Astronaut | Acid

Cast

Ian McCulloch	...	Commander Ian Hubbard
Louise Marleau	...	Colonel Stella Holmes
Marino Masé	...	Lieutenant Tony Aris, NYPD
Siegfried Rauch	...	Hamilton
Gisela Hahn	...	Perla de la Cruz
Carlo De Mejo	...	Agent Young
Carlo Monni	...	Dr. Turner
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Angelo Ragusa	...	Warehouse Man

Also Known As:

Alien Contamination (USA) (cut version)
Astaron - Brut des Schreckens (West Germany)
Contamination - Alien arriva sulla terra (Italy)
Contamination: Alien on Earth
Toxic Spawn (USA) (video title (cut version))

Runtime:

95 min | USA:84 min (R-rated version)

Country:

Italy | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:18 (nf) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario) | France:-12 | Iceland:(Banned) | Norway:(Banned) (video rating) (1984) | UK:(Banned) (1984-2004) (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating) (2004) | USA:R | Australia:R

Filming Locations:

Colombia

Company:

Alex Cinematografica

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the first technician in the derelict ship picks up the egg, a camera Matte box is visible on the left side of the screen, dollying back.

Quotes:

Colonel Stella Holmes: Help! Let me out! There's an egg!

Movie Connections:

References Zombi 2 (1979)

Fell in love with an Alien-rip off!

Good, gooey, undemanding entertainment, directed by Luigi Cozzi ("The Killer Must Kill Again") and more than obviously inspired by the huge success of Ridley Scott's blockbuster "Alien". The most memorable sequence in that particular Sci-Fi classic involved one of the spaceship crew-member's chest exploding on-screen. If you were thrilled by that scene, and if you're a Sci-Fi / horror fan I can't imagine you weren't, you will absolutely LOVE "Contamination", as Cozzi revolves his whole film on the given of nasty chest implosions. A gigantic cargo ship arrives in the New York harbor, but there isn't a crew member in sight. It's quickly discovered what happened to them, as a research team stumbles upon hundreds of big green eggs that explode when temperatures increase, and cause to implode anyone standing near them. The eggs are clearly extraterrestrial, but they're transported in coffee cases, so a female military major starts an investigation to find out who's shipping these alien murder devices to all corners of the world. "Contamination" has quite an intense and suspenseful opening, but then it rapidly becomes the gory and unscrupulous video-nasty it's reputed to be. The dialogues and acting performances aren't very impressive, but the gore is delicious and leaving very little to the imagination. Plus, the make-up effects are actually quite convincing and professional, not nearly as cheesy as in most other and often non-Italian "Alien" rip-offs. The ending is marvelous, as we get to see the Martian monster that breeds the murderous eggs and, I assure you, it's bigger and uglier than the average earth-chicken. Oh, another great Goblin score, too!