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Contamination (1980) - Luigi Cozzi




I've been loving the cover art for this Italian Sci-Fi/Horror movie for quite some time. It's really reminiscent of the old Drive-In Creature Features of the fifties. The gore on the back of the VHS box doesn't hurt it's chances of being watched either. I couldn't wait to get into it. I am watching a US VHS copy of Alien Contamination the tracking is pretty terrible and the sound is a bit off. But that just makes it better right? 
A group of doctors boards a ghost ship that is docked in quarantine. They find all sorts of weird stuff along with a group of green pulsing eggs and mutilated bodies. Unluckily for the doctors the eggs explode in their faces and destroy their bodies. It's pretty gruesome. However, some of the eggs are recovered and taken back to a lab for testing. They find out that the eggs are coming from South America. Upon further investigation, they find a one eyed martian that is creating these seeds. 

The movie feels like a mix of Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. You have a hokey alien that is distributing these eggs as an invasion technique? I don't know. Does it matter. The gore and suspense make up for the fact that it is poorly dubbed over in English and has soap opera quality lines. Scenes tend to take a lot longer than they should only to be capped off by terrible editing. I understand what Cozzi was going for. He was very limited by the technology in 1980 and he was going for an independent thing. It wasn't pulled off very well.

Everything about this movie is low-budget and underwhelming. However, the music is superb. It was provided by legendary giallo horror group, Goblin. I suggest checking out the soundtrack. If you like that kind of music. Other than that, the move fell a bit short. It wasn't that entertaining and it was really over the top. Most times that isn't a bad thing, but this just wasn't the best. Sometimes I found myself getting bored. 

If you wan't to expand your knowledge of Italian Horror then this is a good pick-up for you. It's not a terrible movie. I have seen so much worse. This movie is just not entertaining on the level that other Italian Giallo pictures are. It's fun for your friends and can act alright as a date movie. But it's not a repeatable watch. Check it out. Have fun. Watch more horror!

Director: Luigi Cozzi
Producer: Claudio Mancini
Writer: Luigi Cozzi
Starring: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Masé, and Siegfried Rauch
Music: Goblin
Studio: Alex Cinematographica S.r.l. and Barthonia-Film
Released: May 9, 1980 
Country: Germany/Italy
Did ya know: According to director Luigi Cozzi, the alien cyclops shown towards the end was supposed to be much more animated, but this was not shown due to problems with the mechanics. 

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