Alien Contamination (1981)

From director and writer of one of my favorite B-movie works, Starcrash, Luigi Cozzi returns with another science fiction ripoff in Alien Contamination aka Contamination. Starcrash is particularly famous as one of the better "Star Wars" ripoffs of the late 70's, Contamination is another semi rip-off of a famous film with some mild resemblances to Ridley Scott's Alien.

When an empty freighter comes barreling into New York, harbor authorities begin to worry when they discover the crew brutally killed, and a strange cargo of large green eggs packed in coffee boxes from South America. The eggs appear to come alive when they come in contact with heat, beginning to glow and pulsate, eventually exploding and spewing a deadly liquid which appears to have killed the entire crew. Scientists can only conclude that these eggs aren't from Earth, but could have possibly come from a recent Mars mission, yet someone appears to be harvesting them and planning some sort of attack. Earth's only hope lies in the scattered memories of the remaining astronaut from the Mars mission and a mysterious South American coffee company.

Contamination doesn't strike a spark as well as Cozzi's previous film Starcrash, and only succeeds in it's rather gruesome scenes of bursting internal organs when humans get too close to the alien eggs. The story has enough going for it that the film is watchable and it wasn't too difficult to make it through the 83 minute run-time. A few hilarious lines made it slightly amusing, but overall it's a grade F horror film that doesn't have all the makings of worth while B-movie.

What I Learned:
- There's ice caves on Mars.
- Martians grow quite well in the jungles of South America.
- A one eyed squid Martian's can be grown from a seed.

4/10