Main Cast: Ian McCullough, Louise Monroe, Marino Masé, Siegfried Rauch, Lisa Hahn
Release Year: 1981
Country: IT/WG
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Following the surprising success of his cheapjack Star Wars knockoff, Star Crash, Italian director Luigi Cozzi was given the helm of this cheapjack Alien knockoff. An alien cyclops causes a man to cover the Earth with nasty eggs (sometimes made of silicone, sometimes close-ups of common olives). The eggs release gelatinous gunk which makes people explode, and it's all part of the alien's plan to take over the world. Cozzi, a less-talented protégé of Dario Argento, at least gets a good soundtrack by using his mentor's house band, Goblin, but delivers a bad film nonetheless. The director admits that the ludicrous monster was made of badly painted papier-mache, requiring 96 separate cuts to look convincing in its big scene. It didn't work. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Review
This ambitious but threadbare exploitation opus does its best to combine modern gore and old-fashioned sci-fi elements but the end results are far from impressive. Writer/director Luigi Cozzi's approach is agreeably unpretentious, stitching together ideas from worthy sources as diverse as Alien, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and Zombie, but his combination of these elements lacks the inspiration and craftsmanship to make this patchwork approach work. Even at a 90-minute length, Alien Contamination drags interminably due to Cozzi's poor pacing. Some horror fans might find themselves drawn in by the film's array of gruesome makeup effects scenes but even these moments aren't terribly impressive due to poor editing and staging that makes them look unintentionally silly. The script's ham-handed dialogue doesn't help things, veering between phony science jargon that makes Ed Wood's scripts sound like Shakespearean works and groan-inducing romantic banter that fail to spark any interest in the colorless leads. The performances are the final nail in the coffin: genre vet Ian MacCullough acquits himself well but the other performances are either inert (Louise Marleau) or amateurish (Marino Mase). To sum up, Alien Contamination fails to deliver even by exploitation film standards and is likely to disappoint even the most patient viewers. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
