cyclopean alien | Monster Zone

'You feel them in your blood!' — ‘You feel them in your blood!’

Look into my hypnotic eye... — Look into my hypnotic eye…

Starring Ian (ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST) McCulloch, Louise (BLACK MIRROR) Marleau, Siegfried (THE URANIUM CONSPIRACY) Rauch, Marino (TENEBRAE) Masé, Gisela (DEVIL HUNTER) Hahn and Carlo (THE SCORPION WITH TWO TAILS) Monni. Written by Luigi (STARCRASH) Cozzi and Erich (BLOODY MOON) Tomek, directed by Luigi (THE ADVENTURES OF HERCULES) Cozzi, produced by Claudio (THE WITCHES’ SABBATH) Mancini. Special effects by Giovanni (ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS) Corridori.

Ian McCulloch as the alcoholic ex-astronaut Hubbard

Large, green, alien eggs are discovered in a cargo ship and their presence on Earth is linked to a recent space expedition to Mars. One of the astronauts from this martian mission, Commander Hubbard (McCulloch), teams-up with Colonel Stella Holmes (Marleau) to investigate the appearance of these deadly eggs, which burst open when they are disturbed, spraying a sticky fluid that causes victims to explode if it lands on their bodies!

Torso eruptions! There are lots of these gut-plosions!

Hubbard, Holmes and New York police detective Tony Aris (Masé) eventually find themselves in a South American plantation, where a big, cyclopean alien (which had been brought to Earth from Mars as a seed) is using mind control powers to oversee a plan to stockpile vast quantities of the killer green eggs!

Also known as ALIEN CONTAMINATION and TOXIC SPAWN, this Italian-German schlocker is a mishmash of sci-fi, splatter and spy story, with a very nifty music score by the group Goblin that really enhances the viewing pleasure of this fun flick.

Above: two shots of the green, slimy alien eggs

Somehow CONTAMINATION, which is too cheesy and absurd to be taken seriously, found itself on the United Kingdom’s infamous DPP list of ‘video nasties’ in 1984, no doubt because it featured all those shots of people bloodily exploding their intestines and innards everywhere after getting splashed by the goo from the green eggs. These erupting body scenes, obviously inspired by the chestburster incident in ALIEN (1979), are the standout moments in the film, along with the finale, where we’re introduced to the (rather immobile) one-eyed alien. This critter is a pretty cool creation: it has a single, luminous eye, a face that narrows in the middle, and it has several mouths, one of which is on the end of a slimy appendage. The manner in which the alien gobbles up its victims is simultaneously comical and rather revolting. The extraterrestrial beast is well-lit in all its scenes and it makes up for its lack of movement by possessing the psychic ability to FORCE its victims to willingly walk up to it and wait to be eaten!

The appendage-mouth gets ready to start munching a victim!

The silly, ridiculous plot exists purely to give the filmmakers an excuse to include the scenes of bodies detonating in slow motion (plus the lingering shots of the aftermath of these body-eruptions), the shootouts that boast multiple bloody gunshot squibs, the cyclops-alien climax, and the various shots of noisy, glowing eggs.

Above: some of the many bloody scenes from the movie — Above: some of the many splattery moments from the movie

There’s one scene with Stella trapped in a bathroom with an about-to-explode glowing & moaning egg that seems to go on forever: it’s an awesome sequence!

Is this movie (directed by Luigi Cozzi going by the Anglicised name Lewis Coates) a sci-fi-horror classic? Well, it obviously isn’t, but the film IS a slimy, gloopy, gory, gonzo B-movie that is a joy to the eyes and ears, especially if you’re a fan of 80s-era Italian exploitation cinema. Oh, and there’s an exploding rat to look out for too!

Here are some posters for the movie…

Here’s the Arrow Video Blu-ray cover…

Finally, one last look at the splattery action…

The loss of a submarine and other ships in the Arctic near the North Pole causes much international concern. It is decided to send the atomic submarine Tigershark on a mission to find out what is causing the disasters.

The crew of the Tigershark, which includes the sub’s captain Dan Wendover (Dick Foran) and Lieutenant commander Richard Holloway (Arthur Franz), plus scientist Dr. Carl Neilson (Brett Halsey), eventually discover a UFO lurking beneath the sea… controlled by its extraterrestrial, one-eyed occupant!

This low budget flick, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet, has stilted narration, obvious use of stock footage, plus some of the most unrealistic, tiny submarine models ever committed to film… and yet… I really like how the movie suddenly becomes darker and more atmospheric once the crew get into the undersea saucer.

Another look at the astoundingly small, unrealistic submarine model! — Another look at the astoundingly small, unrealistic model submarine!

In this more impressive latter section of the film we see characters getting their skin melted by light beams and another guy dying when he’s caught in a closing saucer door. The interior of the craft is impressionistic, with lots of totally black backgrounds (due to budget constraints, I’m sure), which adds to the darker tone of these scenes. The ‘Electro-Sonic’ score is also a plus.

THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE boasts a very cool-looking alien: it is a large, cyclopean, tentacled, telepathic Lovecraftian creature!

I love the look of this one-eyed extraterrestrial!

At one point the alien gets shot in the eye: cue lots of goo!

Scriptwriter Orville H. Hampton (who also wrote THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE and JACK THE GIANT KILLER) and Irving Block & Jack Rabin (who worked on the story) came up with one particularly cool idea: which is that the saucer is organic and able to seal-up the hole made by the atomic sub ramming into it.
It is a shame, then, that the makers just didn’t have enough money to properly convey this aspect of the story.

At the end of the movie the saucer breaks through the sea ice… and you can see the stick that the saucer model is attached to! But who cares? The film’s central plot (atomic sub hunting down undersea saucer in the Arctic) is pretty damn good.

The movie has a marvellous, action-packed poster too!

Finally, here’s an illustration of the alien by Jamie Chase…

Who are you lookin' at?! — Who are you lookin’ at?!

Monster Zone

Tag Archives: cyclopean alien

Contamination (1980)

The Atomic Submarine (1959)

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