Dec 16 2008
Splodin’ Peoples
Alien Contamination aka Contamination (1980)
D. Luigi Cozzi aka Lewis Coates
Blue Underground
1.85
Some might call Italian director Luigi Cozzi a hack. I’m not so sure I can disagree, but there is a certain amount of charm to his work that is undeniable and very appealing. Whenever he dives in and does a famous Italian rip off he adds enough berserk weirdness to it that it becomes something all its own. Take for example his Star Wars trip, Starcrash, a movie that has nearly everything wrong, from the wonky special effects (who thought it was a good idea to have the stars be different colors like Christmas tree lights?) to miscasting of people like Marjo Gortner as a Space tough guy. But in the end it is a delightful stew of odds and ends (it doesn’t hurt to have Caroline Munroe in a skimpy outfit most of the running time) that is irresistible.
So when Cozzi was assigned a knock off of Alien he attacked it with gusto. His only consignment was that he had to have gory chestbursting scenes and an Alien in the film. So he concocted the bizarre and wonderful film we know and love today as Contamination.
The film tells the story of Alien eggs from Mars that have made their way to Earth. When they get too warm they hatch, well actually burst, sending goo all over any unsuspecting person nearby. But the goo is toxic and causes the people to swell and ultimately explode in great showers of guts and gore. These eggs are first discovered on a freight ship in the New York harbor in boxes of coffee from Columbia. Soon the secret service is called in and with the help of a New York cop they are investigating this extraterrestrial yolks. More people explode as they track it trough the criminal underground and back to a space mission from Mars and then to a coffee factory in Columbia and a conspiracy to enslave the planet!
The final film bares no resemblance to Alien except for the exploding bodies and that there is an alien in the final reel. And what a crazy looking Alien it is! He looks like the martians on The Simpsons (in fact I’m willing to lay money they are based on this guy, the resemblance is too uncanny) with one eye that is clearly made out of a car headlight. That one eye naturally hypnotizes people so it can eat them with its giant uncircumcised penis looking tentacle. Throw in a little espionage (that Cozzi claims was forced upon him by the producers) and a touch of romance and you get typical cozzi weirdness and a whole lot of goofy fun. Also adding to the atmosphere is a great score by Goblin (after the departure of Claudio Simonetti). And watch for genre stalwart Ian Macollach from Zombie who has a hilarious showdown with the female doctor in which she berates him verbally until he bitch slaps her and they naturally have a good laugh about it!
The DVD from Blue Underground looks simply fantastic, with bold colors and no print damage to speak of. It is almost odd to see this movie look so good after years of it looking crappy under the title Alien Contamination on American tape and theaters. The disc offers two interviews with Cozzi where he talks about the making of the film. This may be out of print now, I’m not entirely sure, but it still seems easy enough to come by. And a lot of Blue Underground titles seem to be schedule for Blu Ray in the upcoming year, so maybe (we can hope) this might get that treatment sometime soon.
2008-12-16
05:17:25
Andy Copp
