Contamination

This film has good ideas, some good gory visuals; however, it is extremely slow after a fast start that it makes the film less enjoyable than it should have been. This film is obviously trying to capitalize on Alien, but does so in a very roundabout way. We do not get an Alien on the attack in a spaceship; no, instead we get an alien life form on earth, one that we will not see until the very end! Instead, it is all conspiracies and lunch plans as the film stops focusing on the action after the first 15 minutes as it seemingly tries to lull you to sleep after it begins with a bang!

The story has a ship that is essentially a runaway as the crew is nowhere to be seen. A group of people explore the ship and find the crew has been killed in most gruesome fashion and a bit confusing fashion as we learn that they were killed by alien eggs exploding and spreading goo over its victims. However, how did goo get on the captain hiding in a closet or to anyone not near the eggs? Soon a cop and a scientist track down the place where the cargo was to go and find more eggs and then they track down an astronaut who has seen this things on Mars and then they make dinner plans and we get to watch a woman beat on a bathroom door for five minutes leaving one to question why a bathroom door would lock from the outside as an egg takes forever to explode! Soon they must battle the people responsible, but not really the alien because the poor thing is stationary...

This film has promise and could have been good with more exploding effects and action. After the factory the film becomes almost a chore to watch, even when the alien is revealed as we have to watch people slowly walk through the jungle and stumble towards the alien! The alien actually looks pretty gruesome though, so kudos to the visual effects department as they did a good job on both it and the exploding bodies. The people responsible for the plot, not a very good job at all.

So, you get a somewhat entertaining film to watch if only it did not get so slow. I watched this thing again after watching as a kid so long ago and I was like 'awesome' after the first bit, but then it becomes a chore to watch as my eyelids got heavy watching the padding in this thing. Italians can make some entertaining films that are basically ripped off American films, but they seem to have a harder time with alien films as Alien 2: Alien on Earth also has the problem of being slow, but at least it picks up in the end. This one, not so much, though it was fun watching the alien eat a guy!

This moderately amusing "Alien" cash-in, taking place on Earth, is ultimately too plodding for its own good, too short on action and too heavy on dialogue. Some genre fans may grow tired of the exposition, and regret the fact that there's just not enough good creature stuff. There IS a creature at the end, but it's largely of the endearingly silly variety. There is some delicious gross out material here, namely lots of chests exploding in slow motion. And of course there's always the spectacle of eternally cool Ian McCulloch turning into bad ass hero once again. But there just isn't a lot here to really recommend this one - that is, of course, unless you're a hopeless addict of the science-fiction and horror genres.

A massive ship mysteriously cruises into New York Harbour (this opening is highly reminiscent of "Zombi 2", which also featured McCulloch), and authorities discover that its cargo hold is full of disgusting green egg-like objects. Upon further investigation, they find that there's also a warehouse in NYC housing the things. Soon, a government agent, Colonel Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau), an NYC police detective, Tony Aris (Marino Mase), and a traumatized former astronaut, Ian Hubbard (Mr. McCulloch) travel to South America to investigate the ships' origins.

"Contamination" does have some entertainment to offer die hards, but overall one would be advised to simply revisit "Alien". (I've been told that another Italian knock off from this period, "Alien 2: On Earth", is more fun than "Contamination".) One misses that deep space atmosphere a good deal. That said, it's still a hoot to check out these effects and these performances. Also starring are Siegfried Rauch as the astronaut Hamilton, Gisela Hahn as his associate Perla de la Cruz, Carlo De Mejo as Agent Young, and Carlo Monni as the ill-fated Dr. Turner. One point of interest is a typically nice score by the great prog rockers Goblin.

Watchable enough but never really inspired.

Five out of 10.

Luigi Cozzi's "Contamination" is a typical Italian "Alien" clone.The film itself is not bad,because it offers some cheap thrills with plenty of nasty gore.Ian McCulloch("Zombi 2","Zombi Holocaust")is quite memorable as a former astronaut,who returned from Mars.Like many Italian exploitation films made in the early 80's,the film begins on location in New York City.A bunch of mysterious eggs is discovered along with some mutilated bodies on a deserted ship.Getting too close to these eggs could be very deadly,because they spew some goo at you and make your body explode."Contamination" is a fun little film loaded with enough gore and violence to satisfy fans of Italian splatter.It's sometimes too talky and dull,but the beginning is great as is the ending.So if you're a fan of Italian low-budget exploitation give this one a look.Grab some beer and get ready for some thrills,chills and blood spills!

Ian McCulloch shines, as he did in 'Zombie Flesh-eaters', this time as an alcoholic former NASA astronaut who is dismissed as mad when he talks of the threat of an alien invasion from Mars (as is par for the course in these space capers).

If you enjoy lame acting, poorly dubbed voices, cheesy 80's gore effects and an implausible plot, then this is the film for you.

Italian/German sci-fi horror about large green Martian eggs initially found on a cargo ship drifting apparently unmanned into New York. An unlikely team of three head to a coffee manufacturer in Colombia where they eventually encounter a big alien cyclops. Back in the 1980's Contamination found itself banned as a Video Nasty in Britain, and has been released in cuts of varying length. Thankfully it is now available uncut and it looks great on Blu-ray. The plot is silly, the dialogue is hilariously bad, the Martian cave looks very cheap and the dubbing is often out of sync (not unusual to be fair), but on the other hand there is a lot of gore on show, the pace is good and the movie boasts a Goblin musical score. I love the movie, yes it is trashy but for me it is very entertainingly so. I don't think that I could tire of watching it.