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ContaminationItaly made a lot of rip-offs and mockbusters in the 1970s and '80s, and Contamination is no different. If you can't tell from the poster art, this movie tried to pull heavily from Alien in its advertising. It also uses the idea of killer alien eggs that were inspired by HR Giger's work, though budgetary constraints caused the plot to be drastically reworked. And then the producer interference began, from the name (Contamination was supposed to be used for a different rip-off film of The China Syndrome) to the plot to the special effects. That said, director Luigi Cozzi did at least get to pull in some cast and crew from films such as Starcrash and Zombi 2, so he probably saved a few bucks there.
But how is it? Awful! The plot is silly: an alien cyclops is using a possessed astronaut to release its eggs on Earth, eggs which cause people to explode if they come in contact with them! And then there is a special section of the government trying to solve the case, where their biggest struggle is their own ineptitude and completely misplaced sense of design for how American agencies look, particularly law enforcement and military branches. But hey, never let a low budget get in the way of what the people want: gore. And this film features people's bodies exploding almost instantaneously after they bloat up from the obvious pumps hidden under their clothes. The effect looks awful, yet it was intense enough to get this movie added to the Video Nasty list in Britain.
While the audio has not fared well over the years and sounds distorted and muted, the soundtrack is by none other than Goblin, albeit using songs they wrote for other films. Goblin was hired by Dario Argento to redo the soundtrack for Dawn of the Dead when it was released in Italy, and while those songs have never found their way back into the film in any release, many of them were used in other cheap B- or Z-grade genre pictures in Italy at the time. I recognized one of them while I was watching Contamination and applauded their use. Because sometimes Goblin is the best thing these movies have going for them.
Could this have been good? Probably not. There was never a budget, it was always going to be a rip-off film, and Luigi Cozzi's name isn't exactly synonymous with quality. Yet studio interference and nationalistic protectionism in the form of moral outrage on the part of nations like England definitely cut into this movie. It's worth seeing a few folks' chests pop like bubbles though.
Exorcist II: The HereticMan, the '70s were weird. Exorcist II is not the most '70s film I've ever seen; that honor belongs to The Visitor. But this movie sure as Hell is trying. I really am not sure what to make of it. It pretty much took the plot of Exorcist and decided to give it the finger and then throw itself out a window while locust swarms attacked it. There's a lot of bizarre sets and costuming, some weird ideas and philosophies regarding evil and psychology, and a demon that just comes across as bland. It doesn't help that the script was apparently being rewritten daily, so the end result is disjointed, awkward, and frankly dumb. But then, that kind of helps give it that '70s vibe.
To add to it, director John Boorman didn't have the budget or was able to get permission to film on location, so just about everything was done on a sound stage on a Warner Bros. back lot. That means heavy use of matte paintings and miniatures, which contribute to the strange dreamlike quality that the film possesses...as well as the most hideous psychiatrist's office I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, the 1970s were a weird time. Nobody should design offices like that.
Did I like it? That's tough to say. I'm struggling to say I even understood it. I appreciate things about its appearance, but it's a mess of material. It is a crazy ride though, one that I feel should be entirely divorced from its predecessor. As much as I laughed at The Exorcist, it's a much more effective film than this. This is crap. Not bad crap, but crap nonetheless. I don't recommend it to fans of the first film. I recommend it to people that want their movies bizarre, eerie, and illusory. Movies that blend fantasy and reality in strange ways and leave you wondering what it is you just watched.
Really, view at your own risk on this one, folks.
