AKA: Alien Sulla Terra, Alien on Earth, Alien 2, Alien - Die Saat des Grauens Kehrt Zuruck

Not to be confused with the Boris Karloff film of the same name, or the similarly themed "Contamination" this is another one of those cheapo Italian knock-off's that came out in the wake of "Alien".

The plot of this film however moves the action from outer space to deep underground, focussing on a group of pot-holers who get more then they bargained for when they encounter extra-terrestrial life deep under the Colorado mountains.

In this, Thelma (Belinda Mayne) and her crew of cave explorers are preparing to check out a series of subterranean caves, when news reports start coming in that the crew of a spacecraft, meant to be landing nearby, have simply disappeared. Thinking nothing of it, they climb down into the vast labyrinth of caves and tunnels inside the mountain and begin to explore.

One of them brings along some strange rocks he claims were strewn around the entrance. But soon after descending to the depths of the cave, they discover the rock is no ordinary geological sample as the plucky pot-holers find themselves being stalked by strange looking, tentacled alien creatures which emerge from the rock faces.

Trying to escape from the labyrinth of caves, they find themselves getting picked off one by one by the aliens, which can take over your body and cause your head to explode, as the rest of the team soon find out. But even if they do survive, what awaits them above?

Not bad as far as these cheapo Italian films go, but that's about it. There's a couple of good gore effects, but the action is way too slow. It takes some 40 odd minutes to get to the action, and the scene where the first head explosion takes place took so long you could have grown a beard whilst waiting. The film isn't a total loss. But unless you're a fan of Italian films you might not like this.

Makes an excellent companion piece with the film "Contamination".

Overall Marks : 4/10.

Other Information.

• The role of "Burt" was played by Michael Soavi, who went on to become a director in his own right. Most notably for the film "Cemetery Man".

• Belinda Mayne, who played Thelma, also appeared in the fantasy film "Krull" and the horror B-movie "Don't Open till Xmas". Dr Who fans may recognise her from the episode "Delta and the Bannermen", in which she played the role of Delta.

• Although a rip-off of "Alien", many aspects seem to be based on 2 different films in Hammer Studio's "Quatermass" series. The concept of a space capsule returning to earth with no-one on board was taken from the 1955 film "Quatermass Experiment", whereas the concept of aliens taking over from spores falling from outer space was lifted directly from the 1957 film "Quatermass 2 : Enemy from Space".

• The films soundtrack is credited to "Oliver Onions", which is actually a pseudonym for brothers Guido and Maurizo DeAngelis. They have over 150 musical scores to their name, which are predominantly in the Italian industry and have scored works for 'Antonio Margheriti' (Killer Fish), 'Umberto Lenzi' ("Ironmaster"), 'Sergio Martine' ("After the Fall of New York") and 'Ruggero Deadato' ("Atlantis Interceptors").

• The German release was entitled "Alien - Die Saat des Grauens Kehrt Zuruck", which translates as "Alien - The Seed of Having a Horror Returns"??????

Cast and Crew.

Cover Gallery.

German theatrical trailer (1.79MB).

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