Prometheus’ Five Inbred Cousins
BAKER STREET
Ridley Scott’s claustrophobic horror classic Alien spawned three sequels, a couple of crossover spinoffs, and now, with Scott’s highly anticipated Prometheus finally in theaters, a prequel.
This story is not about those films. It’s about 5 of their most trailer-trashing, banjo-picking cousins from cinema’s remote backwater, the Alien Rip-off film.
#5 – Alien Contamination (1980)
How it’s like Alien: Astronauts exploring a cave on another world find a bunch of bumpy, slimy alien eggs that glow from within. This leads to exploding chests and a large, drooling monster killing people.
How it’s better than Alien: Eight chestbursters, compared to a lousy one in Ridley Scott’s film.
How it’s worse than Alien: The entirety of the extraterrestrial landscape is a single bad painting. The other 99% of the film takes place in Perth Amboy, NJ, or somewhere that looks like it. And since revered British actors John Hurt and Ian Holm were not available, they hired Ian McCulloch, the unrevered British actor who starred in Dr. Butcher, M.D.