CONTAMINATION

Italy, 1981, 90 minutes, Colour.
Ian Mc Culloch.
Directed by Lewis Coates.

Contamination is one of several Italian horror thrillers of the late '70s. There was a cycle of these - and they could well be called murders, 'spaghetti horror'. Just as with westerns and the police films, the Italians have taken the genre and its conventions and made them their own. The treatment is generally very direct melodramatic and even operatic. There is an emphasis on physical violence and gore which many censors have considered excessive. The films generally take the plots from American or English stories and often they have American settings. Examples would be Zombie Flesh eaters, Sergio Martino's Island of the Fishmen and Slave of the Cannibal God. This film has an American setting and then moves to South America. The film was directed by Lewis Coates, which is a pseudonym for Coates directed the Canadian follow-up of Star Wars: Star Crash with Marjoe Gortner and Christopher Plummer. This film is post-Alien material and capitalises on monsters and destruction from outer space.

1. An enjoyable and interesting horror science fiction thriller? The violence? - excessive?

2. The appeal of horror: nightmare, monsters, death and destruction? The blend with science fiction thews? The old It Came From Outer Space theme?

3. Italian production with international look? The special effects - especially the eggs and the destruction of human beings? The use of New York locations, South American locations?

4. The film's use of horror, suspense, shock, violence?

5. The New York setting and the eerie opening? The ship with no life on it and the discovery of the dead men? The discovery of the eggs and their tearing people apart? The visuals of people exploding - the point being made? The testing out of the eggs on the rat in the laboratory? The mystery elaborated? The transfer to South America - the discovery of the source of the eggs and the cultivation, the confrontation?

6. The eggs themselves and their power, being heated, exploding? Their danger? The egg in the shower with Stella - and the consequent suspense? The fields of eggs managed by robot-type men? The discovery of the alien monster and its trying to devour people?

7. The film having a heroine (like Alien) in charge? Her control of the harbour, laboratory? Her seeking out the astronaut? The danger in South America? The discovery of the coffee plantation and the office? The confrontation with the monster and the final rescue? A heroine for this kind of film?

8. The two heroes: the policeman and his experience on the ship, his being decontaminated, his going to South America, his being captured with Stella, his being devoured by the monster? The pathos of the comic hero? The contrast with the astronaut, his story, his rescuing Stella, his ingenuity in the plane, in the field of eggs, in attacking the headquarters, in killing the monster and saving Stella? Conventional hero?

9. The villains: the woman and the coffee plantation, the astronaut who had been taken over by the power from Mars? His final destruction and explosion?

10. The monster itself - the alien Cyclops? The ugliness of the monster, its devouring people? Its own destruction? The irony that there were more monsters with their eye on Earth?

11. The conventional crises: dangers, Stella and the shower, the plane crash, the attack of the headquarters, Stella almost being devoured? How satisfying this straightforward adventure material? Within the horror and science fiction context?