CONTAMINATION: ALIEN ARRIVA SULLA TERRA

(vt Contamination; vt Alien Contamination)

   Film (1981). Cannon. Dir Luigi Cozzi, starring Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Siegfried Rauch, Martin Mase, Lisa Hahn. Screenplay Cozzi. 85 mins. Colour.

   "In Italy," says Cozzi, "when you bring your script to a producer, the first question he asks is . . . What film is your film like?" This is one of several competing Italian attempts to exploit the success of ALIEN (1979). Its opening imitates Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 (1979) (mysteriously deserted ship with monstrous cargo docked in New York, and the use of actor McCulloch); and a lot is borrowed from QUATERMASS II (1957). A tolerably lively effort, which repeats too often its image of an alien parasite making characters' stomachs explode in a flurry of guts and blood, this has a Martian MONSTER and a hypnotized astronaut disseminating alien seed-pods around the globe. There's a loud score by Goblin, and some well staged action as resourceful heroes take on zombified alien slaves and an especially ridiculous last-reel monster.

   KN