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Contamination

  • 1980
  • 12
  • 1h 35m
IMDb RATING
5.1/10
5.6K
YOUR RATING
Contamination (1980)
Home Video Trailer from Blue Underground, Inc
Play trailer3:12
1 Video
62 Photos
B-HorrorBody HorrorSpace Sci-FiHorrorSci-Fi

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 plant... Read allA 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.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.

  • Director
    • Luigi Cozzi
  • Writers
    • Luigi Cozzi
    • Erich Tomek
  • Stars
    • Ian McCulloch
    • Louise Marleau
    • Marino Masé
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.1/10
    5.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Luigi Cozzi
    • Writers
      • Luigi Cozzi
      • Erich Tomek
    • Stars
      • Ian McCulloch
      • Louise Marleau
      • Marino Masé
    • 94User reviews
    • 141Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Contamination
    Trailer 3:12
    Contamination

    Photos62

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    Top cast13

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    Ian McCulloch
    Ian McCulloch
    • Cmdr. Ian Hubbard
    Louise Marleau
    Louise Marleau
    • Col. Stella Holmes
    Marino Masé
    Marino Masé
    • NYPD Lt. Tony Aris
    Siegfried Rauch
    Siegfried Rauch
    • Hamilton
    Gisela Hahn
    Gisela Hahn
    • Perla de la Cruz
    Carlo De Mejo
    Carlo De Mejo
    • Agent Young
    Carlo Monni
    Carlo Monni
    • Dr. Turner
    Nat Bush
    • Warehouse Guard
    • (uncredited)
    Ettore Martini
    • General
    • (uncredited)
    Angelo Ragusa
    Angelo Ragusa
    • Warehouse Man
    • (uncredited)
    Martin Sorrentino
    • Black Warehouse Worker
    • (uncredited)
    Brigitte Wagner
    • Doctor
    • (uncredited)
    Horst Weinert
    • Dr. Hilton
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Luigi Cozzi
    • Writers
      • Luigi Cozzi
      • Erich Tomek
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews94

    5.15.6K
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    Featured reviews

    5TheOldGuyFromHalloween3

    Alien meets The Andromeda Strain

    And Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Cheech & Chong.

    This is the Italian version of Alien. The main actress is played, I believe, by Sigournia Weaverotta. The main actor is the highly esteemed Doug McClurio.

    The badly dubbed dialogue has such gems as: "We have over 400 eggs" "Eggcelent"

    The cast has all faded into obscurity except the alien creature who got a job making Slurm in the late 90s.
    4Aaron1375

    Starts good, but it is a slow stroll from there...

    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!
    Crap_Connoisseur

    A Crap Classic

    Contamination is my idea of movie heaven. It is a shining example of the dubbed sci-fi/horror, Euro-trash spectaculars that were produced on a massive scale in the 70s and early 1980s before Europe turned its backs on cheap entertainment and focused on making dreary art-house fare. In my opinion, Contamination is a reminder of all that was great about this, now virtually extinct, film-making phenomenon.

    Contamination is generally regarded as the embarrassing bastard child of Ridley Scott's "Alien". While the film does shamelessly steal certain elements from Scott's masterpiece, it is by no means a boring copy. The plot is so twisted and demented, not to mention ludicrous and ridiculous, that it transcends its "borrowed" elements and becomes something almost entirely unique and wonderful. For example, whereas Alien takes place on a deserted spacecraft, Contamination begins on a deserted boat, then moves to New York City, makes a detour via Mars and ends up in a Colombian coffee factory!

    In addition to the utterly preposterous storyline, the joys of Contamination are manifold. There is the wonderful 80s synth score, some of the most atrocious acting committed to film, side-splitting dialogue, fantastically ancient cutting-edge technology (the science lab is a marvel of 70s/80s set design), fabulous euro-effects (among them glowing, musical alien eggs, exploding rats and better yet, exploding people) and then there is the Cyclops.

    I could probably write a novel just on the glorious Cyclops. What a wonder of latex and wire! The film is worth viewing just for this magnificent creature, with its big, glowing eye and vile snout. This kind of craptastic special effect died a painful death with the introduction of CGI, and movies have been all the worse for it.

    Forget the pretentious rubbish clogging up IMDb's top 250 and watch this stunning opus instead. I can not recommend this highly enough.
    5lowellstone

    It's awful - I loved it!!

    Being a child of the fifties, I grew up watching drek like this. The only difference I could see between this movie and something made in the fifties was the color.

    I'm not sure who Luigi Cozzi is, but I am sure that he must be related to Ed Wood.

    This movie was made in 1980, long after the special effects of "Plan 9 from Outer Space" should have been deep-sixed. The plot is very thin, the dialogue is embarrassing and the ending is both bad and predictable.

    Having said all that, I had a great time watching it - it was on the El Rey channel which has become one of my guilty pleasure favorites. It's 90 minutes I will never get back but that's OK.
    7HumanoidOfFlesh

    Pretty decent.

    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!

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    Related interests

    Bridget Hoffman in Evil Dead (1981)
    B-Horror
    Jeff Goldblum in La Mouche (1986)
    Body Horror
    Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner in Star Trek (1966)
    Space Sci-Fi
    Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
    Horror
    James Earl Jones and David Prowse in L'Empire contre-attaque (1980)
    Sci-Fi

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to director Luigi Cozzi during a Q&A, the film was partially funded by Colombian drug dealers. When the movie made money they were very pleased with their investment.
    • Goofs
      When Commander Hubbard is telling Colonel Holmes about the expedition to Mars he claims the eggs were green just as the one in the photograph she showed him. But the photographs she has shown him were in black and white so he couldn't possibly know if they were green as well.
    • Quotes

      Hubbard: [drunk] What else do you want to know about me? How many times a week I screw?

      Colonel Stella Holmes: If you're always in that condition, it's obvious you couldn't get it up, even if you used a crane.

    • Alternate versions
      The fully uncut version of "Contamination" was finally released in the UK by Anchor Bay in 2006 as part of their "Box of the Banned" compilation series.
    • Connections
      Edited into Blood on Méliès' Moon (2016)
    • Soundtracks
      Connexion
      Written by I Goblin

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    FAQ16

    • How long is Contamination?Powered by Alexa
    • What are the differences between the British BBFC 18 VHS and the uncut version?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 18, 1981 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • Italy
      • West Germany
    • Official site
      • Watch on Pave TV
    • Language
      • Italian
    • Also known as
      • Alien Contamination
    • Filming locations
      • New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • Alex Cinematografica
      • Barthonia Film
      • Lisa-Film
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 35m(95 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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