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 Alien (1979)

From the way it starts it looked like it would be the goriest movie ever.

This movie starts off with a bang. A ship without a crew ends up in New York City. It has these mysterious pulsating eggs aboard. The eggs explode and anything the stuff inside the eggs touches explodes as well. This movie is a take on the movie "Alien", though this one is set on earth. Like I said this one starts out with numerous deaths, but it tails off in the middle, sort of picks up in the end, but it never matches the gore level it had in the first half hour or so. Ian is good in this one as an ex-astronaut, but the rest of the cast could have been replaced. They needed a better female lead, as the one they had was too old. I listened to an interview with the director of this film and he wanted someone younger, but the producer thought they needed someone older and less attractive. He won and we have lines that were definitely made for a younger woman still left in lines like, "you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen". All in all an enjoyable sci-fi flick, but it could have been a lot better if the energy of the beginning could have been used throughout.