Contamination (1980)

Little did cinema realize when it happened just how much Sergio Leone's first two entries of 'The Man With No Name' trilogy, in making spaghetti-western versions of Akira Kurosawa's 'Yojimbo' and 'Sanjuro', would be an influence, today, 50-odd years later. It could be said that in the fervor of Italian directors going from one filmmaking trend to the next (from the neorealist agenda of 'Ossessione' and 'Rome, Open City', to swords-and-sandals epics, then spaghetti westerns, then the crime films of the 70's, then space invasion films, such as this, after the huge global success of Sir Ridley Scott's 'Alien' and George Lucas' 'Star Wars') has had almost as much an influence on cinema as the groundbreaking game-changers that initiated this mass-production. It taught virtually all filmmakers that with a fraction of the huge Hollywood budget, a couple of ideas could be extrapolated into a much cheaper film that could ride on the coattails of success of its way-more-famous predecessor. Being nostalgic, there were some things that really scored big for me and made me raise my rating: Seeing the Twin Towers of New York City again, the Goblin soundtrack and the Cannon Pictures logo, especially. It's a suspenseful, well-made for its expense sci-fi film that isn't simply worth a watch, but is worth owning a copy and re-watching as well. This is most definitely one of my finer finds from my ominous Mill Creek 50-pack, 'Nightmare Worlds'.