Auteur Luigi Cozzi’s “Alien Contamination” also known as “Toxic Spawn,” also known as “Contamination,” also known as “Aliendrome,” is one of the most incoherent horror films spawned from Italy. It’s tedious but shockingly compelling, and manages to take just about everything from various films to mix together something that’s about alien green egg pod chest bursters turning humans in to zombies that originates from Mars, as masterminded by a phallic Cyclops alien with a vaginal mouth and hypnotic eyes. All funded by the Colombian Mafia! Seriously.
A large vessel is found floating in the Hudson River and is inspected by a Hazmat crew that’s been warned of mysterious conditions within. After finding the maimed remains of the crew, they find Captain Sully, a man who is then quarantined and questioned about his survival. What they discover is within the bowels of the ship are some kind of green glowing eggs from another species that’s been harvested. Along the way a scientist and police officer uncover information about the eggs, the zombie like victims, a trip to Mars, and a lot of other stuff happens that is pretty incoherent.
The only thing worse than a bad horror movie is a boring horror movie and Luigi Cozzi cobbles together all these elements from better horror films and never quite does anything with them. There is some amazing gore sequences, and a fantastic score by The Goblin that all would have been better implemented in a great horror film. All the pieces are there, but “Alien Contamination” never takes off from the starting gate. It doesn’t even work as an “Alien” wannabe, because it owes more of a debt to “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “Invaders from Mars” than anything else.
It tries to aim for body horror nonsense, and digs deeps in to the whole specifics and science of the alien menaces, but it’s all a lot of empty palaver meant to add a gloss to what is basically a nonsensical villain. The aliens want to take over the world, I assume, but every person it inhabits it implodes in a gory mess, and there’s not a ton of clarification as to what the eggs are supposed to be. Then there’s a lot of explanation about a Mars mission, and Cozzi even delves slightly in to zombie movie material, giving the alien victims pale visages. But every time a concept is introduced, it’s pulled back, resulting in this weird stew of horror devices that doesn’t even amount to solid schlock. I guess you could garner some interest in this title for its shameless cribbing of better science fiction fare, but in the end, it’s wholly for experimental horror buffs.