Contamination (1980)

Ahhhh ... the boot! Is there no genre of film the Italians will not brazenly rip off? The best part is that no one seems to give a fuck, myself included! I can go on and on about the pros and cons of Italian horror cinema but I'd be merely regurgitating common knowledge amongst genre Aficionados, so, I'll stick with the matter at hand: Contamination!

To make a long story as short, in 1979 the world was taken by storm by Ridley Scott's 'Alien' with its bleak yet abstract and Lovecraftian atmosphere, claustrophobia and gory imagry. The Italians, Argento protege Luigi Cozzi in particular, seemed to revel in the bloodshed and soon the need to bestow upon the masses a film of their own took hold. I refuse to consider this film a mere rip off as anyone with a cycloptic eye can tell, there was an abundance of passion instilled within this film, as cheap as some of it may come across. Hey, what the fuck do you want from a low budget film ?

I gotta say, I fucking adore this film! I vaguely remember seeing this as a child on Elvira's Movie Macabre WAY back in the early 80's and being pretty creeped out. The whole egg concept from Alien is sort of  "adopted" into this film and that's pretty much where the comparison ends. Instead of the egg hatching and some arachnid type creature jumping out and impregnating hapless curiosity seekers, these eggs blow up and emit a sort of toxic fluid which sprays all over the place causing the chest of any unfortunate chum who happens to get splashed with this shit to explode, rib cage and all!!!

Now here's the fucking crazy part! (?) These "eggs" are actually being shipped all over the planet from a coffee plantation located in South America that's being operated by a gigantic cycloptic Martian who can control people through some manner of telepathy and devours the rejects! No shit! Take THAT Sigourney Weaver!

This movie has all of the shit that any great Italian gorefest should have INCLUDING the mandatory Goblin score. Fuck all of the cry babies that piss and moan about this being a rip off of Alien. Who gives a fuck? Hey, if Alien was your thing and you find yourself fiending for something with a similar vibe then here you go. The Italians always had a way of capitalizing on their American counterparts and somehow making things even more gruesome such as the oatmeal/maggot face zombies from Fulci's 'Zombi 2' as opposed to Romero's rather timid blue faces from the original Dawn. So, having said that, it's safe to say you can expect a totally messy gorefest here that keeps to the Italian tradition in spades. Mangia Antonio!