Contamination(1980)

Arrow Blu Ray Release of "Contamination"

Director: Luigi Cozzi

Rating: Unrated

Military colonel Stella Holmes, former commander Ian Hubbard, and NYPD lieutenant Tony Aris investigate the mysterious epidemic of alien eggs that have deadly acid blood, which causes anything that it touches to explode.

The movie stars Ian McCulloch as Hubbard and Lousie Marleau as Holmes.

While "Contamination" has been known as an Italian ripoff of the 1979 classic "Alien," I saw it as much more. The story did have similarities to the latter film, but it was also much more elaborate, and it blended much more genres including scifi, horror, comedy, action/adventure, and romance. The movie is honestly everything that could be wanted in a B-Movie. There is laughable dialogue(intentional and unintentional), cheesy special effects, excessive gore, mediocre acting(with the exception of a great performance by McCulloch), and pure entertainment. I was honestly interested the entire time, because the movie had a perfect balance of serious and silly moments. I thought the body explosion scenes were extremely impressive, because while the gore was cheesy and obviously fake, it was still shocking. Goblin performed a really awesome prog-rock score, which gave the movie a psychedelic and futuristic feel. The only thing that I would have liked to see more of was tense moments with the alien eggs. The scenes that took place with them were actually very suspenseful, and they were some of the biggest highlights of the film. While I don't think the movie suffered from not having more alien scenes, I think it definitely would have been an improvement. 

Reversible cover of Arrow Release

The version of "Contamination" that I viewed was the uncut release from Arrow Video. I was highly impressed by the quality of the product, because it featured Blu Ray and DVD copies of the movie, great cover artwork that is reversible, a nice slip cover, a booklet, and loads of special features. The picture and sound of the Blu Ray transfer were both beautiful, and they both projected greatly. Some of the extras included were a Q&A with Ian McCulloch and Luigi Cozzi, a documentary with Cozzi about the film, a commentary with Fangoria editor Chris Alexander, a featurette with Goblin keyboardist Maurizio Guarini about the music, etc. Arrow really succeeded again with this great release, and it is the definitive copy of the movie.

While  "Contamination" is not a masterpiece, it is a very fun B-Movie that will keep you entertained for its hour and a half run. If you are a fan of underground cinema, then it is a must see.

Grade on a B-Movie Scale: 9/10

Blu Ray Grade: 10/10