{"id":5882,"date":"2024-10-14T23:28:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T03:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=5882"},"modified":"2024-10-14T23:28:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T03:28:05","slug":"contamination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/14\/contamination\/","title":{"rendered":"Contamination"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Contamination <\/strong>(1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon\/Horror-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence and gore)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Luigi Cozzi (as Lewis Coates)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Luigi Cozzi (as Lewis Coates) and Erich Tomek\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Goblin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Giuseppe Pinon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 11, 1982 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Mase, Siegfried Rauch, Gisela Hahn, Carlo De Mejo, Carlo Monni.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I remember Contamination<\/strong> as Alien Contamination. I can\u2019t say I recall it playing in theaters on or around the US release date given on IMDb (June 11, 1982). Whenever it came out that year, I can say with 100% certainty that I wouldn\u2019t have appreciated it the same way I do now. At that time, I was not yet a fan of all things Cannon. I also hadn\u2019t developed a taste for Italian exploitation yet. As such, the names Luigi Cozzi or Lewis Coates (Luigi\u2019s American nom de plume<\/em>) wouldn\u2019t have meant anything to me. Now I know him as the director of Starcrash (greatest Star Wars knock-off EVER!), the two Hercules movies with Lou Ferrigno and Contamination<\/strong>, a strange hybrid of sci-fi-horror and James Bond thriller replete with \u201cTalking Villain\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0An obvious knock-off of Alien, the story begins with a seemingly abandoned ship drifting into New York Harbor. A subsequent search reveals the entire crew is dead and the cargo isn\u2019t coffee. The boxes contain green alien eggs filled with a toxic goo with a fatal effect on humans. Remember the scene in Alien when John Hurt\u2019s chest explodes? BINGO! Get splattered with this green alien goo and it\u2019s all over for the splattee. BOOM! SPLAT! Guts and insides everywhere! The military sends Colonel Stella Holmes (Marleau, Heart Break) to investigate with the help of NYPD Lt. Tony Aris (Mase, The Salamander) who was first on the scene and saw first-hand what the eggs do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s determined the eggs were brought to Earth after a mission to Mars that didn\u2019t end well for the two astronauts, Hubbard (McCulloch, Zombie) and Hamilton (Rauch, Escape from Athena). Something happened up there, but nobody believes Hubbard\u2019s story. An inquiry, in which the now-deceased Hamilton denied anything happened, results in Hubbard being declared insane and grounded permanently. Now a bitter alcoholic, Stella and Tony call on him to beg for his help now that they believe his story. Reluctantly, he agrees to help them find out why the eggs were brought to the Big Apple.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Their investigation leads them to a coffee plantation in Colombia that\u2019s really a front for the secret laboratory of the villains, Perla (Hahn, Battle of the Stars) and Hamilton (BIG SURPRISE!). In true Bond fashion, the heroes are captured while posing as potential new clients taken on a tour of the facility. Instead of killing them on the spot, the villains explain their evil plan to exterminate all human life. Haven\u2019t bad guys learned by now that this is a dumb thing to do? It gives the good guys time to devise and execute an escape plan. Do they not teach this in villain school?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Contamination<\/strong> is an uneven mix of gory horror and silly spy flick. It\u2019s less effective when it falls back on spy movie tropes. It loses a bit of momentum. However, I do believe Cozzi\/Coates was onto something with this fusion of genres. Looking to do more than give the world another alien invasion flick, he throws in a conspiracy to wipe out all life on the planet. In and of itself, it isn\u2019t a terrible idea but did he really have to sends the heroes to South America? Why not keep the action in New York City where the bad guys intend to place eggs throughout the sewer system? That has real potential. The villains\u2019 lair could be an abandoned subway station converted into a lab. Their Mr. Big figure, a giant alien cyclops with mind control abilities, could easily be situated in a dark tunnel. It\u2019s just a thought.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At the same time, there\u2019s fun to be had with the mix of genres. In one scene, an attempt is made of Stella\u2019s life while she\u2019s taking a shower. An unseen baddie sneaks into her hotel room and locks her in the bathroom with an alien egg ready to hatch. She tries everything at her disposal to get out to no avail. Tony and Hubbard don\u2019t immediately realize she\u2019s in trouble. They think the DO NOT DISTURB sign on her door means she\u2019s taking a nap. Even though you know they\u2019ll save her in the nick of time, there\u2019s still a fair amount of suspense.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If acting means delivering dopey dialogue with a straight face, Contamination<\/strong> gets an A for it. Like a lot of cheaply made Italian horror movies, it\u2019s poorly dubbed. Eh, it\u2019s part of the ride, just go with it. The pacing is a little off in terms of consistency. This mainly applies to the middle section. The movie has some great gory effects although I would have liked to see more gut explosions. The animatronic alien cyclops is particularly well done. The score by Goblin truly enhances the experience. It has a sufficiently bleak final shot, that\u2019s always cool.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Overall, I like Contamination<\/strong> originally titled Alien Arrives on Earth by Cozzi\/Coates. I wish it was more sci-fi than spy-fi but this is to be expected from Italian exploitation. It doesn\u2019t always deliver what the poster promises but it\u2019s usually strangely entertaining. It\u2019s best just to go along for the ride and not protest. You\u2019ll have more fun that way.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contamination (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon\/Horror-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence and gore)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Luigi Cozzi (as Lewis Coates)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Luigi Cozzi (as Lewis Coates) and Erich Tomek\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Goblin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Giuseppe Pinon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 11, 1982 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Mase, Siegfried Rauch, Gisela Hahn, Carlo De Mejo, Carlo Monni.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Contamination-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6090,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions\/6090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}