"Contamination" (1987)

"Contamination" is a short film by filmmaker Clarke M. Smith and producer Peter Beam, completed in 1987 via equipment from the University of Arizona. It was made for a college class called Beginning Video Production, and produced by TimeAxis Entertainment. The lead characters were played by Sergei Droban and Robert Perry. Droban was a high school friend of Smith and Beam. Also featured was Smith’s stepfather Ande Felix, as well as some locals and the parent characters from “The Lurking” (1985).

## Plot

Two hitchhikers, Sergei and Bob,  come upon what looks like a small, abandoned village.  Bob finds a bunch of water bottles. Thirsty, he sips from one. It is revealed that several of the bottles have ‘contaminated’ stickers on them.  He offers it to Sergei, who does not drink it. Bob continues exploring, and comes across a cadaver in a room.  He calls Sergei in, and when they check closer, the cadaver wakes up.  He begins foaming at the mouth while exclaiming, “Don’t drink the water!”.  He then collapses and dies.

Sergie exits the room and finds an uzi and a bullet cartridge.  Bob comes out and feels a pain in his stomach.  Unaware, Sergei explores further and finds more bottles with the same sticker on them.  Bob becomes ill and somehow knows that ‘they’ are coming and tells Sergei to go get help. Sergei briefly puts down the gun, and is then surrounded by a group of ‘contaminants’ from the village. They force him to drink the water and the story ends.

## Realizing the Script

The film has a real time structure, and was mainly inspired by the Norwegian camp scene from John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982). Certain shots and scenarios were directly quoted from the film as both a nod, and as an exercise for the class.

Ande Felix (1950 - 2000) wanted to do a gross out, foaming at the mouth scene as part of the contamination process. It was incorporated into the script. Along with Felix, the 2 leads were cast - Beam’s friends Lamar Smith and Robert Perry, who were roommates in Tucson.

Unlike later classes which were designed for students to learn ENG and local news type video production, the class was open ended to create whatever one wanted for the final project. Smith and Beam delivered this quirky little horror film.

Smith and Beam had their cars worked on at an auto mechanic out in “the sticks” called Barnyard Mechanix, located off Oracle Jaynes Station Rd in Tucson, AZ. It was a perfect location, rundown and decrepit. Upon approval, they set to out to shoot the weekend before, and on the Thanksgiving break in November 1987.

## Shooting Details

Shooting got off to a rough start, beginning on the Saturday before Thanksgiving 1987, at the location. Lamar Smith was in crutches from a leg break. Though it seemed ridiculous to be a hitchhiker on crutches, production plowed ahead. A few shots of just Lamar were shot, and came out well. Robert Perry was not needed till the following weekend. A few days later, Lamar got a very noticeable haircut - with many scenes left to shoot the upcoming weekend. That was it for Clarke M. Smith; Lamar was fired. It was the last straw, as Smith felt the entire production was completely lacking in enthusiasm, and anyone giving a damn about it.

Unfortunately, none of Lamar’s footage exists because tape was expensive at the time (or not readily available), and it was erased with the re-shot scenes with a different actor. Enter Sergei Droban. He was called on Friday to start the next morning. And he came in sight unseen, having never seen the script. Robert Perry remained in the production despite his roommate being fired.

After Thanksgiving, the film went on to principal photography. To Droban’s likely confusion, the film was shot completely out of order and he just did each scene and line without knowing much or anything about the surrounding shots to make up the story.

As the day went into the night, Ande Felix’s scenes were shot last. This caused a slight issue with total darkness appearing in the doorway, when moments before in the finished edit, it was full daylight.

### Music

The musical score for Contamination was primarily comprised of the existing score from “Aliens”, by James Horner. In addition, the opening and closing credit scenes was from Ennio Morricone’s “The Thing” score.  The piece was called ‘Humanity Part 2’. Other scenes contained pieces from “Halloween II”, by John Carpenter. When originally edited for class, the entire ending and end credits (starting with the contaminants attacking Sergei) was a choice by Peter Beam, to use a rap song called “Play This Only at Night” by Doug E. Fresh. However, years later, Smith wanted the film to be taken a little more seriously, and took the song off and replaced it with the Horner score and a reprise of the Morricone piece.

## Aftermath

Pete was too nervous and/or embarrassed to attend, but a very nervous Smith showed the film to the very large class and instructor in 1987. "As proud as I was of our film, I was mortified as I watched the puke scenes with the class, and all the loud groans!" Smith said. "It was truly embarrassing". Despite the reaction, the instructor absolutely loved it, and commented on the report that it "set a new standard for future students to live up to". It got an A+.

Subsequently, 10 years later, Smith teamed with producer Eric Smith (with Peter Beam on board in a supporting role) to create a sequel - "Contamination 2", completed in 1998.

## Video Links

"Contamination" (1987) (Movie)

1999 Visual Audio Commentary

1987/2005 Cast/Crew Interviews

Bloopers