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.
- Warehouse Guard
- (uncredited)
- General
- (uncredited)
- Warehouse Man
- (uncredited)
- Black Warehouse Worker
- (uncredited)
- Doctor
- (uncredited)
- Dr. Hilton
- (uncredited)
Featured reviews
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.
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.
Did you know
- TriviaAccording 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.
- GoofsWhen 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 versionsThe 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.
- ConnectionsEdited into Blood on Méliès' Moon (2016)
- SoundtracksConnexion
Written by I Goblin
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