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| View Larger Image | Contamination | DVDStarring: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Masé, Siegfried Rauch, Gisela Hahn
Directed By: Luigi Cozzi
Also With: Giuseppe Pinori (Cinematographer), Luigi Cozzi (Writer), Nino Baragli (Editor), Claudio Mancini (Producer), Ugo Valenti (Producer), Erich Tomek (Writer)
| List Price: | $14.95 | | Price: | $13.49 | | You Save: | $1.46 (10%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | DVD | | Rating: |  | | Run Time: | 95 minutes | | Format: | Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Original recording remastered, Widescreen, NTSC | | Studio: | Blue Underground | | Number of Discs: | 1 | | Aspect Ratio: | 1.85:1 | | Release Date: | March 30, 2004 | | Sales Rank: | 48,975th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 03/30/2004 |
Amazon.com
Director Luigi Cozzi's science fiction thriller, which borrows wholesale from Alien for its loopy plot, is a gleefully cheesy gorefest that should please horror fans with a fondness for the lowbrow. Long-suffering Eurocult Ian McCulloch (Zombie) stars as an astronaut who joins an investigation into the appearance of extraterrestrial eggs on a ghost ship in New York's harbor. Their search uncovers an Earth-based conspiracy to cultivate the eggs for world domination. Despite the abundant gore and lunk-headed script, Contamination has an endearingly naive tone that suggests '50s-era B science fiction (of which Cozzi is a fan); as such, one can't be too harsh on a film that displays its affections so openly. Amazingly, Contamination has been banned in England since being named in the "video nasty" debacle of the early '80s. Blue Underground's widescreen DVD is uncut (with 5.1 Dolby and DTS sound!), and should be a welcome addition to any cult collector's cache. --Paul Gaita |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 24 reviews)
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Hee hee... by A. Griffiths (London)  3 Stars
October 13, 2009
Another mini budgeted Italian "Alien" clone...this one is fun though. A large freight ship is found floating empty, but upon investigation the mutilated bodies of many crew members are found aboard. No-one can work out the cause of their deaths except to say that it seems like the bodies exploded from the inside - until (in a hilarious and unexpected scene) the same gruesome fate suddenly starts to befall members of the search team who get to close to the innocuous looking green pods that make up the ship's cargo: they explode in a slow motion fountain of blood and organs while other staff members look on in horror! What is the cargo that caused such horror and where did it come from? That's the plot for the remainder of the film.
Although the film is set on earth with no space travel involved, the similarities to "Alien" are too obvious to ignore. First of all, the death scenes involve people's chests exploding, plus the source of the infection is the same (green pods/eggs) and finally, there is a extra-terrestrial connection to the problem...but I'll leave it at that for people who haven't seen the film. What I enjoyed was the fairly simple plot, which ran just long enough to set up the leads required for the cast to track down the source of the menace, some enjoyable set pieces such as the "bathroom menace" and the bonkers climax, and finally the acting isn't bad either, despite the usual tacked on English dub. The music and sound effects are also pretty good, a spooky breathing/whistling noise is played a lot over shots of the eggs and it adds to the atmosphere quite well.
Once banned as a "video nasty" in the UK, I really can't imagine any viewer being traumatized by the exploding death scenes...the actors clearly have strapped-on fake chests which stick out like huge barrels on their bodies! But it's nice to see it out on DVD, as it works as a fun little sci-fi shocker if you don't have high expectations.
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Alien Contamination. by Puzzle box (Kuwait) 3 Stars
April 29, 2008
This was a very odd and cheesy Italian gore flick, it was a mix of horror and science fiction and it was directed by Luigi Cozzi who now owns the Dario Argento store in Rome called Proffondo Rosso. While Contamination was a decent film I just didn't think it was that good, the first half was very promising as we get to see some impressive gore scenes with the exploding stomachs but then the second half kind of loses steam and becomes slightly boring. The green alien eggs were a knock off from Alien and you could tell that this film was trying to cash in on its success which was typical of Italian horror films at the time, some of these films were of course great cause you can't take them too seriously and they were usually gorier than the original films.
Contamination has some pretty bad acting and stars Ian McCulloch who also stared in Zombie 2 and Dr. Butcher M.D. so hes pretty well known among Italian horror fans and the direction from Luigi Cozzi was rather low-key with some scenes looking abit too dark, the pacing was a bit uneven despite having a great opening sequence which had some great suspense and the film also has a weak plot but if your a gore hound then you won't mind since there were plenty of great gore scenes, the exploding stomachs were quite impressive and they even have a scene done in slow motion in case you missed it.
The story's about two astronauts returning to Earth from Mars carrying with them some deadly bacterial eggs the size of footballs which have the lethal potential to destroy the Earth's entire population. When a ship along with its slaughtered crew (their bodies seem to be ripped open from the inside) arrives in New York city a government task force must discover a way to stop the alien invasion before it's lethal containment causes all the city's residents to explode. The film also involves some coffee plantations in South America that has been hiding these eggs for other purposes and Ian McCulloch's character and a female scientist along with a New York city cop are on the trail, oh yeah and theres one laughable alien that appears towards the last half of the film. Contamination was a very trashy gore flick that I enjoyed to a certain level so if your an Italian horror fan then you'll probably like this as well, Blue Underground did a reasonably good job with the transfer and provided the disc with some great special features like interviews with the director and behind the scenes along with a picture gallery.
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They came, they cracked, they killed by Daniel Jolley (Shelby, North Carolina USA) 3 Stars
March 31, 2008
I don't know about you, but I always get a kick out of these Italian knock-offs of successful American science fiction films. In this case, it's Alien (The Director's Cut)that serves as the major inspiration, although one can't help but draw a similarity here and there with the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as well. Naturally, Contamination (or Alien Contamination, as it was called in the USA) doesn't even begin to compare with Aliens, but it is worth viewing - if you're a fan of the genre, at least. I think it's safe to say that those who care nothing about low-budget science fiction and horror films will not enjoy this film at all, and those without the stomach for gore should also stay away. The film basically has just one gory effect, but it's a pretty good one and is used on a number of occasions. Gorehounds like me, of course, will revel in the "he done blowed up real good" moments.
Contamination opens with a cargo ship barreling into New York Harbor, its crew unwilling or unable to respond to radio calls. Once authorities corral the thing and pull it in, the mystery of the missing crew is solved - they're all very dead, their bodies seemingly ripped open from the inside. Of the three men sent in to explore the ship, only local cop Tony Aris (Marino Mase) comes back out alive. Having found a bunch of strange egg-like things in the ship's hold, the other two made the mistake of picking one up - quickly demonstrating to Aris the awful, immediate, and painful way in which everyone on board the ship must surely have died. That's more than enough reason for the government to quarantine the entire area and send in Colonel Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau) to figure out what the heck is going on.
Tests soon reveal the deadly acidic nature of the "eggs," as well as the fact that they are not terrestrial in origin. So where did they come from? As it so happens, Commander Ian Hubbard (Ian McCulloch) had described finding the same sorts of objects in a Martian cave he explored on a recent manned mission to the Red Planet. No one believed him, though - until now. He reluctantly joins Holmes and Aris as they follow the deadly cargo's trail back to a coffee warehouse in Colombia, where all things are revealed.
Not surprisingly, Contamination has its share of weaknesses. Special effects, apart from your general lab design details, aren't among them. Sure, the dark-ish nature of the print sometimes makes it hard to fully enjoy the sight of people exploding from the inside out, but writer/director Luigi Cozzi's commitment to quality gore is obvious. The storyline, though, is rather weak, the acting is not of the highest caliber, and you have to slog through several sections of painfully boring exposition on your way to the end.
I should also mention the fact that there are basically two versions of this film. Unfortunately, I was only able to find the American version (released as Alien Contamination), which has a run time of some 84 minutes. The original film runs a full 95 minutes, so you'll definitely want to pick up that full-length version if at all possible. Why would they cut a full ten minutes out of this film, you ask? It almost surely stems from the fact that the UK's infamous Video Recordings Act originally led to Contamination being branded a "video nasty," effectively banning it at the time. (It has since been released in the UK with a 15 certificate.) Apparently, slow-motion shots of characters exploding were just too extreme for the mother hens clucking over the British Isles.
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Gore but no script by stephane gagne  2 Stars
February 12, 2008
The movie had a lot of gore but a verry bad script.The monster at the end look very cheap too.
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Terrible, but almost humorous by Ravenskya 2 Stars
January 14, 2008
Others have given long and involved plot synopsis, so I won't bore you with yet another one. Instead I will sum up:
Stock footage of a boat entering harbor with people in a helicopter having a badly dubbed conversation that is comically presumptious. Then they investigate the ship to find gory corpses that have exploded from the inside, and a bunch of giant pulsating avacados in coffee boxes. One of the avacados explodes and so does anyone near it. So of course the US government sends in a woman with no common sense to investigate. Because she has no sense and since this is a top secret issue, she takes with her a street cop and an unemployed alcoholic astronaut on their verbal promise that they will keep quiet. To show just how serious these avacados are... she blows up a mouse and then they head to South America to find the source of the exploding Avacados of death.
The plot is... well... what to say... laughable and told through forced narrative dialogue. The acting is over the top, and the characters behaviour is completely illogical... I won't even get into the Martian Headlight of Death. What I will say is that this movie is perfect for a film class to overdub, or for MST3K. Or for a night with a lot of beer and popcorn and a good group of friends to laugh with. I wouldn't put this at the top of the bad but amusing horror film list, but it's on there... somewhere.
I wouldn't pay money to see it, but it was funny to watch.
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