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Contamination
R0 - America - Blue Underground Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Roger Nicholl (8th October 2005). |
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The Film
 Contamination is a silly Italian horror film, the sort of film that’s much more enjoyable than it is good. I wouldn’t class it in the ‘so bad, it’s good’ category. More in ‘so trashy, it’s good’. If you’re excited by the idea of a film with exploding stomachs, bad dubbing, random scenes of the heroes traveling around South America, and alien pods hidden in coffee crates, then Contamination is for you. The opening isn’t too bad, in the sense that it comes close to being the opening of a genuinely good film. A boat is floating into New York harbour, its crew no longer at the controls. A group of scientists in bio hazard suits investigate and find dead crew men, though their level of surprise is strangely muted. One of them says something like "He looks like he’s been dead for awhile" in an unimpressed voice, like only really decomposed corpses could impress him. And despite wearing masks you can still tell the actors have dubbed voices. Soon they find more bodies and some strange pods, which look like the eggs in "Aliens" (which didn’t come out until 1986, there’s a reason they call him ‘Pinchy’ Cameron). One of the pods pops open and releases a liquid that makes your stomach explode. The army is called in and freezes the pods, and keeps survivor Lieutenant Tony Aris (Marino Mase) of the NYPD for observation. But who is importing these pods? Why? When will someone else’s stomach blow open? Does the N in NYPD stand for Naples? Colonel Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau) gets on the case, and tells Tony he’s to help their investigation despite the fact he seems to be a total goofball. This investigation initially involves several scenes of not particularly enlightening discussion of the science of the pods. They do blow up a mouse by injecting it with pod juice, which is cruelly humorous. After a while Tony clicks that the cargo of the ship wasn’t supposed to be delivered yet, proving he may still be as dumb as we thought, but everyone else is dumber. So a raiding team heads to the factory the pods were bound for. More stomach explosions later they realise this all has something to do with outer space. They go and find an ex-astronaut who’s thought to have gone crazy, but with the gut-exploding evidence may not be, this is Colonel Ian Hubbard (Ian McCulloch) as if anyone bothers to tick off members of the cast when reading reviews. The three of them follow the clues to South America. This trip involves some silly hotel bedroom hi-jinks and lots of extras pretending there’s a huge carnival going on. Eventually the story resumes, there’s a final creature that’s borderline silly but looks good when it eats people. There is one thing, other than Carnivale, that is by Oxford Dictionary definition ‘fun’, and that’s the score by Goblin (credited as "The Goblin" here, which would be cool if it was accurate). It doesn’t blast the eardrums like their music for Suspiria, but it’s still fun electronic ‘80s horror music. I miss the days when horror music had pulsating Casio beats, not just discordant scary noises. Give the soon-to-be-dead something to jig to, I say. If I say Contamination is actually good someone might go and rent it then send me a rude email, and I’m not partial to being flamed. What Contamination is good for is after midnight viewing with friends who would actually get some enjoyment out of a cheap Italian stomach explode-a-thon. Friends you can chat with over the slow bits.
Video
Presented in its original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 this anamorphic transfer is surprisingly good for a nearly forgotten cult horror flick. Blue Underground has done a fine job here but it’s still very far from perfection. The print itself is generally clean, a few artifacts litter the frame every now and then, as do the occasional scratch, dirt and debris but it’s not continuous and does not pose a major distraction. Colours are well represented, especially skin tones, however sharpness is occasionally off as the picture is generally soft. Aside from this the image does hold up well since this is a 25 year old film shot at a relatively low budget. It’s likely to be the best presentation you’ll find of this film on any format.
Audio
Four audio tracks are presented here on this disc, all in English. The first being a DTS ES 6.1 surround track, the second a Dolby Digital EX 5.1 surround, a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track and the original Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono track is also on the disc. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS track, however I also had a listen on the Dolby Digital EX track during a few scenes for a comparison. The DTS 6.1 is very clear, dialogue comes across a bit tinny however distortion free. Note that sync will not always be accurate as this film features Italian actors that have been dubbed over in English. The track is rather aggressive, there is constant activity in the surrounds and the music is mixed well throughout the channels. The Dolby Digital Ex track is nearly as impressive as the DTS, I wasn’t able to detect too much difference between the two however the DTS does have a fraction more grunt to it. Unfortunately this DVD does not include any subtitles.
Extras
The first extra we have on this disc is the "Alien Arrives On Earth" featurette which runs for 17 minutes 35 seconds. This piece is more of an interview with the film’s co-writer and director Luigi Cozzi. The interview is in Italian and features subtitles in English. Throughout the interview the director discusses the origins of the film, the influence from Ridley Scott‘s 1979 film Alien he also covers other various aspects of the filming. Next up we have the Luigi Cozzi On The Creation Of Contamination" featurette which runs for 22 minutes 54 seconds. As with the previous featurette, it’s also in Italian and with English subtitles. This is the original 1980 EPK piece that includes footage of the director at work and being ‘creative’. The film’s US theatrical trailer is also included on the disc. A series of galleries are next up. The first includes stills taken during the film’s production and has a total of 67 images. The second gallery includes 26 conceptual drawings of the eggs, stomach explosions etc. generally the gory effects heavy stuff. Finally rounding out the disc’s extras is the DVD-ROM presentation of the original graphic novel comic.
Overall
Contamination is not a great film, it’s not a classic film or even an important film but it certainly is a fun film. If you want to have a good time watching bad movies this one’s worth a shot. Blue Underground have done a decent job on this DVD including a transfer that does the job (however could use some improvement), a selection of well rounded audio tracks that include a DTS track but it’s also nice to see the inclusion of the original Mono track for purists, additionally the extras are a little thin but the inclusion of any does come as a surprise, one would not expect extras for a sub-B grade cult horror, so for taking the time in presenting this film well I applaud Blue Underground.
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