Alien 2 - On Earth

ALIEN 2 – On Earth
Original Title: Alien 2 – Sulla terra
Directed by: Ciro Ippolito
Italy, 1980
Horror/Sci-fi, 85min
Distributed by: Midnight Legacy

Finally, one of the most anticipated releases of 2010 hit’s the machine. If there ever was a movie that I wanted to be see again, it certainly was Ciro Ippolito’s Alien 2 Sulla Terra (Alien 2 – On Earth) a movie that I still remember the exact moment I first spotted the cover art for in an old VHS rental catalogue in the early eighties. Which for some odd reason used the scene with the police car at the end on it's original packaging... it was obviously changed for a more grizzly design with a severed head later.

Thelma Joyce [Belinda Mayne] is part of a team of spelunkers who go up to an unexplored cave system as part of a weekend expedition. At the same time a space shuttle is on it’s way back to earth after failing its mission. Unknown to mankind at the time, the shuttle has brought with it a strange parasite, which has taken on the form of blue crystal like rock. After breaking down on live television, due to something of a mental disorder making Thelma see monsters, her boyfriend Roy [Mark Bodin] comforts her and takes her to the bowling alley where the rest of the gang are waiting for them. Burt [Michele Soavi], part of the team, sees one of the odd looking rocks and sticks it in his pack. But when they get into the caves, the rock starts pulsating, and pretty soon it turns out that the rock is in fact an alien egg. Trapped deep beneath the earth, the speleologists have to find a way out of the dark damp underworld and this time the monsters are not in Thelma’s mind!

Alien 2 – On Earth is often called a shameless Alien rip off, boring, and [insert your own damned amateur film critic slur for how bad the movie is here]. But let it be known that when you get into watching European low budget cinema, the first thing you learn is that these movies play by an entire different set of rules. There’s no place for customary beats and logic narrative, as these movies have to move fast and punch hard to keep the audiences from getting ahead of the films. Plot holes, illogical moments and spiteful deception are all part of the game. That’s why you only will find true moments of outlandish atmosphere, profound horror and mind-expanding surrealism in these pieces. Where else will you see a goddamned zombie fighting a shark underwater, where else will you see man-size rats in uniforms torch humans, where else will you see a oedipal dead kid biting off his mother’s tit… You get the point; it’s the stuff that draws the rest of us to these movies, and safely away from predicable movies that simply waste our time.

Directed by Ciro Ippolito, under the pseudonym Sam Cromwell, Alien 2 – On Earth is possibly as rare and unheard of as it’s creator. Ippolito and Alien 2 – On Earth are not the usual starting ground when watching Italian genre pieces, but rather something that you may be lucky to discover after some time when you have worked your way through the common starting points of Argento, Bava and Fulci. So who is he? Who is the man behind it all, Ciro Ippolito, and what is his place in the wonderful world of Italian Genre Cinema?

Born just after the Second World War - in 1947 -, the Nepalese Ippolito was part of cinema since childhood when he first appeared in a minor supporting role in Turi Vasile’s Classe di ferro (Class of Iron) 1957. Class of Iron was a comedic musical, later spawning quite a few sequels, but perhaps most note worthy for it’s script, partially written by a young Antonio Margheriti. Already mesmerized by the magic of cinema so early on, it’s no surprise that whilst acting on his second movie, Roberto Rossellini’s Augustin d’Ippona 1972, Ippolito jumped at the chance to prove himself whilst assisting the assisting directors. Staying in the realm, taking small parts in diverse movies, amongst them Gianfranco Migozzi’s classic Flavia, la monaca musulmana (Flavia the Heretic) 1974, the next natural step was to get involved with writing too.

1978 saw Ippolito billed as one of the writers, and also gaining a producers credit on Alfonso Brescia’s Polizietti Napoli serenata calibro 9, together with Brescia and Piero Regnoli – remember, the guy who wrote Andrea Bianchi’s Le notti del terrore (The Nighs of Terror) and Lenzi’s Incubo sulla città contaminata (Nightmare City) 1980… Ippolito would co-write several other hardboiled Neapolitan Polizietti’s in the years to come, and finally he got the chance to helm a movie of his own; Alien 2 – Sulla Terra (Alien 2- On Earth). Ippolito continued making movies, either behind the camera or behind a desk as producer, and to this day has some thirty plus titles to his name, but Alien 2 – On Earth is the one we will remember him by when the man comes around.

Putting it into context, in 1979 Ridley Scott’s truckers in space slaughtered by unseen xenomorph success story Alien rocked the movie world. Obviously it inspired a whole heap of low budget followers that wanted to get a piece of the sci-fi horror scene. And everyone put their spin on it too, just like Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination, Alfonso Brescia’s La bestia nello spazio (The Beast in Space) and Ippolito’s Alien 2 – Sulla Terra (Alien 2 – On Earth) not to mention the zombie and post apocalypse movies that make up a huge part of the passion held for Italian genre cinema. As these too often refer to and use science fiction traits in their dark tales of a world gone to hell.

Now, Alien 2 – On Earth may not be the best movie inspired by a larger studio original, and it's in no way the worst either. But Alien 2 – On Earth works, it’s entertaining, and it is a magnificent movie that still has some really good moments of terror, suspense and shock. It’s also note worthy that the movie has moments reminiscent to John Carpenter’s seminal sci-fi horror The Thing 1982, and Neil Marshal’s The Descent 2005, even though it was made years before both of those flicks.

Like a lot of low budget Italian quickies, Alien 2 – On Earth gets a lot of shit tossed at it from impatient viewers looking for a quick fix of blood and guts. One constant remark being that it’s “painfully slow”. Now I can’t really agree, because even though there’s no initial attack to set a protagonist and twenty minutes pass before there is a first gore sequence, and at that a brief one, Alien 2 – On Earth doesn’t really move that slow at all. There are several reasons for claiming that. The first being that the first twenty minutes are spent setting up the ordinary world and the characters who live there. Sure it may be shallow, but establishing stuff is exactly what this early part of the movie does. It’s also where quite a lot of valuable information is planted. Thelma’s “inner visions” of monsters that are causing her great trouble – the same one’s that make her freeze on the TV interview at the start, the parallel story with the returning astronauts – see it’s a genesis story, they brought the alien with them, and smaller details like when the team walk into the bar and talk about the size of the unexplored cave system they have discovered. Small details, that come into play later in the movie. So please, stop with the bitching about nothing happening, start reading movies in a different way and be patient.

There’s a fair amount of little details in the script by Ippolito that amuse me, because I always appreciate a well written story – that doesn’t mean dialogue, I want my Italian genre movies to have corny dialogue, it’s also part of the form – but in the script there’s good stuff, such as the logic procession of things. Being speleologists, an area that combines several fields, geology amongst them, it’s really no surprise that Burt [Soavi] sticks the rock in his pack! He obviously wanted to check that rock out later, and where better to store it than his backpack. There’s also logic to why they simply just don’t leave the cave the way they came in. Because there’s the treat of the monster at the top of the decent they went into to rescue Jill. Instead they are forced deeper into the underworld as they search for an alternative way out, and the deeper they get, the tighter the suspense creeps in.

Then there’s that slow build that constantly get’s a hammering. But by skipping a classic initial attack and merely hinting at the dangers – such as the kid with her face smashed to a pulp – it allows the punch to be harder when the blood starts flowing. There’s nothing like unleashing a terrifying, unknown being into a dark cave where we all naturally would experience a certain level of claustrophobia. And even if it was budgetary restraints that inhibited Ippolito to fully expose and reveal the monster – despite that great tentacle attack on Cliff, and the really freaky p.o.v. from inside the beats mouth during the climax – it works in favour of the movie, because there’s no way in hell that they could have come up with anything that would have been as disturbing as H.R. Giger’s alien designs. So keeping it off screen and posing a threat in the off screen space works wonders for this little gem.

There’s also the inventive use of a subplot concerning the returning space shuttle and the astronauts. This is more or less the same kind of thing that George A. Romero did with Night of the Living Dead 1968, through the TV and radio he told of a genesis of the disease that made the dead get up and walk. It’s the same function that the space shuttle subplot has in Alien 2 – On Earth, but with some brilliant stock footage use to actually show us the events instead of just talking about it. In some cases stock footage is a gift to creative filmmakers, Ippolito uses stock footage to get the images that his budget wouldn’t allow him, and this is a great example of how you intercut that footage with your own to create a believable world. It adds dimension and gives a bigger-better-faster look when we actually see the space shuttle, the huge US Navy ships preparing to intercept the shuttle on it’s re-entry and all that stuff.

The ending is dark and haunting, and not too unlike the world in peril scenarios that the zombie and post apocalypse flicks used to climax with. The scenes of an abandoned San Diego are really effective and evocative. Cinematographer Silvio Fraschetti’s use of an early morning on location before the city comes to life to create an eerie atmosphere. But the location that really stands out and definitely makes the movie look a hell of a lot more expensive than it was is the caves. Shot on location at the Castellana Grotte in southern Italy, these almost a hundred million year old caves really make the movie. Just imagine what it would have looked like built on a set, without depth or perspective… instead Ippolito took his cast and crew 70 meters below sea level captured the whole the thing for real.

The cast is an odd mix, none of them are really big genre names, and most of them only have a single screen credit with Alien 2 – On Earth. But Belinda Mayne did work on several other movies and TV serials, Mark Bodin who plays her boyfriend Roy held a part in Joe D’Amato’s infamous Anthropophagus the same year and then there’s everyone’s favourite bit part actor turned director Michele Soavi. Someone really should put together a video of all his death scenes, because I can’t remember many movies where Soavi was still standing at the end of the show. And all good genre geeks know they are in good hands when Nick Alexander worked as the dubbing editor on the movie.

Finally, there’s the score. Amongst my favourite soundtracks, Guido and Maurizio De Angelis works are quite common. Their score to Alien 2 – On Earth, performed under the pseudonym The Oliver Onions, really is a good one. It has a wide range spanning from soft guitar ballads to the great electro funk and brooding horror sounds which suit the movie like a glove. It’s a treat that Alien 2 – On Earth was made just before the Italians started sticking pop and rock songs on the soundtrack, because those movies age as fast as the music in them did, whereas the splendid instrumental compositions still hold an eerie atmosphere and power to them.

To sum it all up then; Alien 2 – On Earth is a splendid little grim flick most likely inspired by Scott’s Alien, but definitely not a rip-off or an “Italian Sequel”. This is a very potent movie that stands sternly on it’s own two legs. Has a decent cast, uses some good themes, and packs a great soundtrack. Not to forget that this release looks amazing.

Midnight Legacy has undoubtedly carved themselves a great groove on the scene with the release of Alien 2 – On Earth. Everything about this release, from the contents to the final artwork and Chris Mantovi's original design is top notch. Skeptics be gone, hail the new king, and with a few more rare titles like this one under their belt it’s fair to say that Midnight Legacy will be giving the competition a run for their money, because even with just one title on the market, they are the most interesting company in the game right now. I know that I’ll be saving the cash that I was thinking of putting on BluRay’s of the holy trinity Fulci, Bava and Argento towards the future Midnight Legacy releases instead, because I’d rather watch stuff that I haven’t seen in ages than watching an upgrade.

The movie has never, and when I say never, I’m even talking about the few screenings the movie had when it played theatrically in 1980, looked better than it does on this BluRay limited edition. Taken from a 35mm negative, the colours are vibrant, the image is stunning, and being a complete novice at BluRay all I really can say is that the detail of image is outrageous. If this is the future then I’m glad that I finally found a movie that motivated me to upgrade all my home entertainment equipment. If you have a BluRay player, and if you are into Italian genre cinema, then this is a must have release. A splendid piece of genre cinema to put amongst the collection - because the spine is numbered, and this time around there's still time to come along from the start. I’ll leave you with that, as now I’m going to sit through Ciro Ippolito’s fascinating Alien 2 – On Earth on BluRay one more time as I await future titles to be announced from Midnight Legacy.

Image:

Widescreen 1.85:1 (1080p HD resolution)

Audio:

Dts-MA 2.0, English Dialogue

Extras:

There’s a Trailer and an eleven minute long special effect outtakes reel showing some alteration in some of the scenes. This material is in HD too so there’s no love lost with this disc at all.

Here's an awesome Australian trailer, which obviously doesn't reflect the quality of the Midnight Legacy release.

Screengrabs taken from Matt Paprocki on doblu.com Check out his detailed review which is more technically savy than this one is, and there's even a three part interview with part of the Midnight Legacy team about the disc, the passion and attention put into bringing Alien 2 - On Earth to BluRay for the first time.

The Nights of Terror

The Nights of Terror
Aka: Burial Ground
Aka: Zombie 3
Original Title: Le notti del terrore
Directed by: Andrea Bianchi
Italy, 1981
Horror / Zombies, 82min
Distributed by: Japan Shock

There’s something very potent with certain bad movies. Movies that are so bad that they in some screwed up way become good. Bad movies that you know are bad, but can’t really make yourself discard it as a real bad movie. Because certain bad movies are so bad that they become good because we all know them and keep on going back to them. They live on because of their flaws, they live on because of their cult status, and they live on because what may seem as a bad movie could very well be a good movie. They live on just like the pasty zombies in The Nights of Terror…

Andrea Bianchi’s The Nights of Terror is definitely one of the classic so bad that it’s good movies. It’s cheap, it’s cheesy, it’s violent, and it’s sleazy. It’s a gem simply because it’s one of the cultural low marks of Italian Genre cinema – and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s one of those movies that people who don’t know, or get, genre cinema will say – “That was the worst film I have ever seen, it’s shit!” Whilst those initiated and with a deeper understanding and tolerance for genre cinema will say, “That was the worst film I have ever seen, it’s brilliant! “

Like so many of his colleagues in the Italian genre sphere, Andrea Bianchi also came from a background in journalism and television production. Always holding a keen eye for the sexier approach to his work he debuted with Diabólica malicia (Night Child) 1972 for which Bianchi handled the riskier euro version that saw a fully naked Britt Ekland in some very suggestive scenes with a barely thirteen-year-old Mark Lester. Bianchi continued to churn out sexploitation movies and continuously used traits that stayed sleazy with a couple of interesting titles along the way. Among the highlights you find the sleazy Giallo Nude per l’assassino (Strip Nude for Your Killer) 1975 - a classic Giallo, using classic Gialli narrative, as Edwige Fenech portrays one of the nude photo models threatened by a gloved, motorcycle helmeted, machete wielding killer, then there’s Malabimba 1979 - a pretty cheesy, but sleazy, semi Exorcist/Nunsplotiation rip off that sees Mariangela Giordano as a nun, and the hilarious stinker Commando Mengele 1987 - where sleazy French production company Eurociné bagged both Bianchi and Jess Franco in the same movie and sported some fantastic state of the art computers… and there’s obviously the one that Bianchi will forever be remembered for – the infamous The Nights of Terror.

Do you really need a quick fix for this one? I’m guessing that you have seen it, because if you haven’t, then you really have no time to waste sitting here reading bollocks online, you should be watching or re-watching the fabulous The Nights of Terror….

After a hefty Santa bearded archaeologist, Professor Ayres [Raimondo Barbieri] discovers something so gobsmacking that he has to keep it secret by concealing it though some really crap dialogue, but he can’t keep his fingers out of the cookie jar and starts banging away like a raving maniac on the walls of the cave he's found with his pickaxe. And obviously zombies emerge from the now open tomb, and ignoring his “No, no, stand back… I’m your friend!” they tear his fucking throat out and devour his flesh. - How’s that for an initial attack!

Following a pretty funky title sequence that shows the cast arriving at the mansion where the shit is about to hit the fan, the obvious counterpart to death is set in motion – sex. Already as the aristocratic bunch park their cars and ask the maid and butler why they didn’t answer the gate to let them in it’s insinuated that they where busy having it off on the second floor. Moments later the various couples start to get down to their sleazy business, Leslie [Antonella Antinori] gives James [Simone Mattioli] a little burlesque dance leading up to some great seedy dialogue - Didn’t you like my little show? You looked just like a little whore… but I like that look on you! Evelyn [Mariangela Giordano here as Maria Angela Giordano] checks in on her hideous son Michael [Peter Bark] to assure herself that he’s asleep before some nocturnal activities, but as soon as she’s on top of George [Roberto Caporali] the weird looking lad walks in on them interrupting their moment of pleasure and also delivering the first of several mulligan’s as the audience suspects the shadows cast through the hallways will be the zombies from the opening… Finally the last couple, Mark [Gianluigi Chrizzi] and Janet [Karin Well] where she predicts that something terrible will happen… Mark assures her that she’s got nothing to fear as she’s safe with him… which ironically proves to be sort of true as she eventually will be the last victim before the movie comes to it’s nihilistic climax.

The bourgeoisie couples ponder the grounds of the mansion and obviously end up in smutty snog sessions here and there as the Etruscan zombies finally break out of the earth and start causing mayhem amongst the group. It’s also at this point that the Oedipal traits that can be found in many of Bianchi and screenwriter Piero Regnoli’s movies are put into play – well actually it’s started when Michael interrupts his mothers shag session with George earlier, but here it becomes painfully obvious as Michael snatches his mom’s hand away from George and kisses it jealously… George walks to the background of cinematographer Gianfranco Maioletti’s composition and very visually and emotionally set aside. A mere minute later George will be dead and once again the gory glory of death is put in harsh contrast to the lovemaking as the couples have it off on the mansion grounds.

This is pretty much how Andrea Bianchi’s The Nights of Terror plays out, smutty groping of horny hands set against smutty groping of dead hands. Life is not a precious thing in this movie and by the end of the flick it’s profoundly obviously that death is always just around the corner.

There’s no questioning that The Nights of Terror is a blatant attempt at cashing in on the surprise success of Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 (Zombie) 1979. It even has special effects by the one and only Gino De Rossi, and even goes as far as copying the iconic maggot infested zombie rising from the dirt gimmick and the outrageous splinter versus eye scene frame by frame, well it tries to at least. Although it should also be noted that Rosario Prestopino who worked as special makeup effects artist on the movie previously had worked on Fulci’s Zombie, and Paura nela città dei morti viventi (The Gates of Hell) 1980, along side with De Rossi, so the grotesque factor of the movie shouldn't all be credited to De Rossi alone, but also to Prestopino too. Later Prestopino would go on to work on many other chunky movies that certainly pack a punch with their special effects like Fulci’s Lo squartatore di New York (The New York Ripper) 1982, Lamberto Bava’s Dèmoni movies 1985-1986, Dario Argento’s Opera 1987 and Michele Soavi’s La Setta (The Sect) 1991 which also featured Mariangela Giordano in a leading role. But back to The Nights of Terror – Yeah the zombies are pasty, the dialogue is cheesy, the effects aren’t very special and at times the movie feels like a perverted doped up episode of Scooby Doo as the cast evade the zombies by running from one location to another through out the entire movie. But that doesn’t really matter, because the movie undoubtedly has some fantastic moments during it’s 82 minute run. But with some great smutty moments, burning zombie and several fantastic moments where the zombies get really inventive and use a bunch of garden tools to get to their victims, the movie is a jolly kick in the balls and definitely a very personal favourite for many reasons.

But The Nights of Terror is also a fantastic testament to how inventive low budget directors took the ever-popular apocalyptic nihilism of the zombie genre and blended it in with their own universe - and that’s exactly what appeals to me with this movie. Much like Joe D’Amato used every genre possible to set his sexploitation vehicles in, Bianchi, Regnoli and producer Gabriele Crisanti also stayed safe in the sphere of that genre that they had become accustomed to since they first worked together - be it Quelli che contano (Cry of a Prostitute) 1974 Bianchi and Regnoli, Le impiegate stradali – Batton Story (The Used Road) 1976 Regnoli and Crisanti, or Cara dolce nipote (Dear Sweet Niece) 1977 which saw all three of them getting together for the first time. And it’s this path that they would comfortably stick to on the more than a half dozen movies that they would make together – the trail of the gritty trashy sleaze movie. You name it and they brought their bag of depraved misogyny, butt naked women, grotesque violence and cheap sleaziness that we associate with the movies of Bianchi - and if you know what movies Regnoli wrote scripts for, you will now exactly what I mean. The Nights of Terror is a hilariously entertaining piece of horror with a big dollop of sleazy kinkiness to go around. If you want blood – you got it, if you want pasty chunky faced zombies – you got it, if you want naked Italian actors and actresses – you got it, if you want a fantastic droney pop score by Berto Pisano – you got it. Although that Pisano score is more or less lifted off several other movies that producer Gabriele Crisanti produced previously… like Mario Landi’s Giallo a Venezia (Giallo in Venice) 1979, which like many of Crisanti’s movies featured the feisty Mariangela Giordano.

In the aftermath of the Video Recordings Act 1984 – the law struck down by the British government in response to the videonasties panic of a few years earlier - Bianchi’s The Nights of Terror was a difficult movie to see in the UK, especially as it had just over ten minutes chopped out by the distributors and then another three by the BBFC before it was released in its just over an hour running time. But not living in the UK at the time, it really shouldn’t matter at all what the British censors do…. although nothing travels faster than word of mouth, and I’m certain that it’s acts like that - a butchering far more serious than anything a filmmaker could have put in their movie – that make up part of these “good/bad movie legends”, after all a movie that was so severe that it had to have almost twelve minutes taken out must be something to see, mustn’t it. And for every person who actually saw the movie in some uncut form – either imported from Holland, Greek Ex-rental or on some third generation dupe, the movies reputation grew. And you know exactly what we heard, there are loads of zombies, guts galore and there’s this really creepy kid that bites his mom’s tits off.

And what about that phenomenal cast - what a great bonus they are for this movie! The mysterious and fascinating Mariangela Giordano… She holds an aura that is reminiscent of so many other great Italian genre piece leading ladies, but never really has the same varnish that they did. There’s something of a chipped doll about her that appeals to me, and at the same time she must be applauded for still accepting key parts in movies that indeed where very misogynistic and violent. If you know her filmography, she’s certainly one of the most violated Italian actresses ever. And it’s fascinating that she, no matter what age she was, still continued to take parts that required her to get her kit off. There are not too many actresses who at the fine age of fifty-nine would strip down for the cameras, like she did for Jess Franco in Killer Barbys 1996. She’s an impressive leading lady that brings a lot to this movie, especially in that freaky incestuous relationship she holds to her son in the film. You have to admit that no matter how much the perversity of their relationship is insinuated, it is a pretty tender moment and a most ironic reunion of mother and child before he takes that mouthful out of her breast. And that chest chomp may be something of a fetish for Piero Regnoli, as he also wrote a similar tit-chomping scene for Umberto Lenzi’s Incubo sulla città contaminata (Nightmare City) 1980.

Not to forget HIM, as if you ever could, Michael, Evelyn’s son played by non other than the remarkable Peter Bark, who only starred in enough movies to count on one hand, but still made an everlasting impression insanely cast as a child when he actually was twenty-six years old. Why Bianchi didn’t go with any of the more common child actors like Giovanni Frezza or one that at least looked like a child. But instead he chose a too old, oversized midget with the most terrifying hair ever… But my goodness what a scene it is, and what an impact it has made. It’s one of the most classic moments of this movie and taking the part as Michael it also gave Bark his only acting credit and secured him a spot in Italian genre history. But there's no space for debate at all, Mariangela Giordano and Peter Bark own this movie, without them it would simply be yet another sloppy Italian zombie flick, but with those two, theres a magic vibe to the piece.

So for once and for all – Yes, Andrea Bianchi’s The Nights of Terror is the brilliantly trashy stuff that legends are made of and definitely one of the best bad movies ever to crawl out of the Italian underbelly!

Image:

Widescreen 1. 85:1

Audio:

Dolby Digital Mono, English Dialogue, optional Dutch subtitles.

Extras:

Original trailer, slideshow. Booklet.