Movie Review: Alien Contamination

Alien Contamination (a.k.a. Contamination a.k.a. Contamination: Alien on Earth a.k.a. Toxic Spawn) 

Starring: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Masé, Siegfried Rauch, Gisela Hahn, Carlo De Mejo, Carlo Monni, Nick Alexander, Larry Dolgin, Edward Mannix, Mike Morris, Angelo Ragusa, Martin Sorrentino, Susan Spafford, Brigitte Wagner 

Director: Luigi Cozzi 

Alex Cinematografica, Barthonia Film, Lisa-Film, Italy, West Germany, 1980. 

This movie is published as a part of Nightmare Worlds 50 movie pack box published by Mill Creek Entertainment. 

An abandoned ship arrives to New York harbour. It is placed under quarantine. Dr. Turner (Carlo Monni) from Health department comes to investigate. NYPD Lt. Tony Aris (Marino Masé) joins him to perform hygiene tests. The group finds exploded corpses. There are also coffee boxes full of green eggs. One egg sprays acid-like liquid, killing several scientists. Only Lt. Aris survives. 

Lt. Tony Aris

Box of eggs

Don't touch it!

Col. Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau) takes charge. The ship is frozen to stop the eggs from hatching. An obscure import company planned to put the eggs in NY sewers. As the police raids the warehouse, they find more eggs and suicidal smugglers. Warehouse is torched. 

Col. Stella Holmes

Stella and Aris try to solve the mystery

The egg yolk contains Segmented dodecahedric cells, so the eggs must come from outer space. Stella remembers that astronaut Hubbard (Ian McCulloch) went crazy on a Mars mission. He told about eggs on Mars. Aris and Stella go to meet him. Another astronaut Hamilton (Siegfried Rauch) lied about the Mars mission. 

Hubbard

Martian egg cavern

Hamilton

Stella, Aris and Hubbard travel to South America. Hamilton and Perla de la Cruz (Gisela Hahn) try to murder Stella with an egg. Heroes visit the coffee plantation to find answers. Alien cyclops monster is controlling the workers there. 

Perla de la Cruz

Egg collectors

Alien cyclops

After a hard-hitting start (that is quite similar to Lucio Fulci's "Zombie Flesh Eaters") the movie slows a bit as it becomes a detective story. The story has some obvious references to "Alien." The Mill Creek version is cut 11 minutes but at least it is widescreen. The special effects are gory with exploding bodies and one rat (no reason to call PETA, it is an obvious fake rat effect). Budget is low but the suspense is good. The eerie music was composed Goblin, a rock group known from Italo-horror films. 

Rating: Good