Contamination (1980) - Arrow

[Pizzamorg]

If you like your films sluggish, crude and dull, this is the film for you.

[GasmaskAvenger]

Eh, I have a 15% off coupon for Barnes and Noble, so I decided to use it on their website and get Contamination.

Yeah I know there's the Criterion sale going on, but i'm not really in the mood to get some Criterion, so I got what was higher on my priority list.

So yeah, i'll finally be able to retire my old Blue Underground DVD sometime next week.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by jlk5844

Whoa Powell lucky you, that was fast. I ordered that first day when Amazon said 1-3 weeks, and mine is coming Saturday, shipped today. Yeah, I was too slow to watch this on Amazon PIV so might as well wait for the Blu-ray. Yeah I could keep it sealed if I don't like it, but screw it I wanna watch the 2K transfer and extras. I am feeling a little worried about this title from the reactions in here. I had heard about the movie years ago and seen screenshots of the gory chest explosions (I think that's right) in Fangoria magazine or something, and it caught my attention. I'm a fan of other Alien rip-offs like Galaxy of Terror and Forbidden World, hopefully I'll like this.

It's not really on the scale of Galaxy of Terror even, believe it or not. It's very crudely made and simple, with the early sci-fi gore feel of the New York moments being the major highlight. I like a lot of bad, cheap sci-fi movies and this one still disappointed, probably the lowest rated movie in my collection now. The soundtrack is awesome though.

If you're a die-hard it's probably still worth it, I don't really regret my purchase, but know what you are getting into.

[GasmaskAvenger]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

It's not really on the scale of Galaxy of Terror even, believe it or not. It's very crudely made and simple, with the early sci-fi gore feel of the New York moments being the major highlight. I like a lot of bad, cheap sci-fi movies and this one still disappointed, probably the lowest rated movie in my collection now.

If you think "Contamination" is bad, wait till you see "Alien 2: On Earth" if you're lucky...or unlucky enough to do so.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by GasmaskAvenger

If you think "Contamination" is bad, wait till you see "Alien 2: On Earth" if you're lucky...or unlucky enough to do so.

Haha... I think this one has scared me away from other Italian schlock releases for a while.

[Member-222782]

Just a suggestion but it would be great if you guys could also post the alternate/slipcover art when entering titles into the database. I'd love to use that foil slip as the cover for my collection entry here. This would also apply to the Scream Factory covers. Currently only the commissioned art is entered but both the commissioned and the original art should be entered so we have a choice.

[Christophah Maghen]

I had a gift card for Target and ordered this off of their site, WOW, amazing slip cover and cover art.

I 99.9% of the time prefer original poster art from the film's era over any newly commissioned art so for me to say that this cover art not only blows away the original but also that it is a great piece of art in and of itself is huge.





Great release, my first Arrow US release and I couldn't be happier with it, transfer and extras are all top notch.

[StingingVelvet]

I out the slip in a drawer but I do love the cover art. Most of Arrow's new covers are quite nice. I only flipped two of them back to the poster art; The 'Burbs and The Beast Within.

In contrast I use the original poster art half the time with Scream releases.

[dallywhitty]

Guess I'm in the minority when I say that I really enjoyed Contamination. I was expecting it to be a bit of a bore (as much as I love the video nasties generally, some of them are a drag) but it exceeded my expectations. That

[Show spoiler]cyclops creature at the end

was kinda cool.

Also, has anybody checked out the 'Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery' featurette about the Italian knock-offs of successful American pictures? Really interesting stuff but the credits start rolling against a black screen whilst the interviewees involved are still talking. It struck me as odd - like they couldn't find suitable music so they figured, 'Ah, let's just keep them talking whilst the credits roll.'

[rdodolak]

Review is up on this site.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Conta...125603/#Review

[Martin_31]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Review is up on this site.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Conta...125603/#Review

3.5 out of 5!?!?! It basically got a 5 rating on everything except audio.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by GasmaskAvenger

Eh, I have a 15% off coupon for Barnes and Noble, so I decided to use it on their website and get Contamination.

Yeah I know there's the Criterion sale going on, but i'm not really in the mood to get some Criterion, so I got what was higher on my priority list

I was surprised to find a copy of Contamination at B&N when I wandered in to check out the Criterion sale. They wanted the full $39.99 msrp which made me go "seriously??" out loud . That was the reason places like Tower Records and HMV (in the US) closed - prices were too frigging high. Who pays that much for a movie??. BTW, my B&N's Criterion selection sucked. A handful of Blu-ray titles and tons of DVDs. Maybe my store was just trying to get rid of DVDs nobody wants.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Martin_31

3.5 out of 5!?!?! It basically got a 5 rating on everything except audio.

I don't know how the site calculates the overall rating but I'm guessing the movie rating plays a hand in that matter.

Regardless, the video, audio, and extras ratings all received outstanding ratings (4.5-5.0).

[StingingVelvet]

Like most of Arrow's releases the last few years it's right up there with a Criterion, but the movie is a whole other matter.

[schlock]

I've always been a sucker for these films, but I can easily understand others finding it really dull. The US distributor was smart and cut out 11 minutes to mostly tighten up the pacing and boredom, but even in its shorter 84 minute edit, it was still pretty dull between the silly gore moments. Of course, I'm glad it's uncut these days, but sometimes shorter is less painful.

[jlk5844]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Review is up on this site.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Conta...125603/#Review

UK one was posted a few days ago. Identical of course.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Conta...125353/#Review

[GasmaskAvenger]

Still waiting for B&N.com to ship my copy out.

EDIT: Never mind, they finally shipped it just now.

[Martin_31]

Just finished watching it, and I thought it was a fun movie. I had seen it a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. It was included in one of those 50 movie packs from Mill Creek, but it had an annoying logo that popped out every 10 minutes. Now with a 2K transfer it looks and sounds amazing. I wasn't bored or thought it was bad. The monster is cheesy and gross looking. My mom saw the last 30 minutes and she gasp when she saw the alien. I thought that was funny. I recommend watching it. I saw one special feature about the inspiration and making of this movie. Really made me appreciate it even more because it takes so much to make a movie. I'll probably finish watching the rest of the special features tomorrow.

[Bumblefeet]

I received my copy last week and watched it yesterday. I've listened to the Goblin score so many times the anticipation of watching the movie was great. It didn't disappoint. It's a great Italian B-movie with explosive gore moments, fun characters and dialogue and a story that could come out of a children's adventure film lol. I laughed plenty at the intentionally funny moments as well as those when the movie goes so overboard with splatter and slow motion camera, that it's hard not to appreciate it. The transfer looks gorgeous and I still need to delve into the many extras.

I've read people dismissing the second hour, there's nothing wrong with it; aside from a cheesy looking end creature, the movie keeps up a good pace, reminiscent of James Bond (the director mentioned he was asked to give it that spin) and I also found it a pre-cursor to Halloween III with the way the eggs were distributed by an evil company. Also great to hear the Goblin score play out through this, definitely makes the movie even more fun.

[Petemo2010]

Did anybody else pre-order from Family Video? I just got an email saying that it's on back order and expected to be in stock in 2 to 6 weeks