Contracted

"Contracted" was actually a nice surprise of a movie, and a very refreshing and innovative take on the zombie genre.

The movie starts out in a fairly average manner, hinting at this being somewhat of a teenage movie, but then it does take a very nice and bizarre twist for the unexpected.

The story is about Samantha (played by Najarra Townsend) who is struggling with an overly caring and protective mom (played by Caroline Williams) and also struggling with her sexuality and relationship to Nikki (played by Katie Stegeman). When at a party with her friend Alice (Alice Macdonald) Samantha gets together with a strange guy in a moment of drunken stupor and has unprotected sex. Over the course of the next three days, Samantha's life comes crumbling down, as does her physical body and mind...

I will say that the story actually picked up a great pace and turned rather interesting come day 1 and forth in the storyline. And the story was really helped nicely along by some really great make-up and effects, as the three days came and went and we witness the deterioration of Samantha.

But of course, everything is not all good in "Contracted". One thing I didn't really understand was how people around Samantha, and particularly the doctor, could be so blind and ignorant to the deterioration of Samantha and her state of decay. How everyone was either blind or ignorant to what was going on, sort of added an element of stupidity to the movie, and a bad mistake from the director.

That being said, then I will say that I overall enjoyed director Eric England's vision in "Contracted" and his interesting approach to the zombie genre. And I will say that, with my devotion to all things zombie, then "Contracted" is well worthy of a place in any movie collection of anyone who enjoy zombie movies.

The ending of the movie was actually very satisfactory and fulfilling to the storyline, and it was a nice touch and a good ending in my opinion. Cheesy and predictable? Sure. But good, nonetheless.

Having read tons and tons of very negative reviews on this movie, I prepared myself, as well we warned my dad who was going to watch it with me, that we probably should not expect something great from it. As it turned out, I was right. This movie isn't great; it was ALMOST great.

The first half of the movie is quite fast paced. The movie cuts straight into the core of the events and both my usually impatient dad and I were quickly drawn to the story line. The plots are very predictable, as the main character, Samantha has one night stand with a mysterious and suspicious man, and afterward finds herself starting to have unexplainable physical changes that keep getting worse and worse.

A lot of people may be annoyed by the way Samantha reacts to her terrible body changes and think that it just "doesn't make sense". That is exactly what my dad kept saying during the whole movie: "how can she let it be?" "why doesn't she go to the hospital?" "a normal person wouldn't even ignore that!". While I understand why people make similar remarks, I totally disagree with them.

What is most enjoyable about this movie is that we are seeing a girl being totally powerless and desperate as she faces the changes of her body. As the story develops and her situation gets worse, we can see that Samantha is partly in denial of what is happening to her, partly trying to play normal, partly being obviously lost and scared, and partly desperate to solve the "problems". To me, the horror that this movie tries to deliver, is not through any gore or violence, but through the desperation of the main character. And I think the movie has done a pretty damn good job in portraying that.

However the ending of the movie is absurd and feels incomplete. A lot of things were left unexplained, and both my dad and I felt like what could have turned out to be the most interesting part of the movie was somehow missed. All in all, this movie really just isn't excellent, but it isn't totally tasteless or as bad as deserving such a low rating. The movie starts out strong but it keeps going down until it hits the bottom at the end. Despite all the flaws it has, dad and I had a lot of fun watching this movie together. With some more thorough development and imagination, this movie could have been GREAT.

The movie pulls the viewer in right from the get go with a dose of necrophilia, leaving you wondering just what you actually saw. Then we find ourselves following the main character Samantha as she makes her way to a party, minus her better half. While at the party she tries to be a good girl but things go wrong as she falls to pressure and drinks her sorrows away. Before you know it she finds herself in trouble with a guy at the party, and wakes the next morning bloodied, sore, not too sure of what happened the night before. Samantha makes her way to the doctor with various symptoms, and tries to blow off her discomfort since the doctor doesn't seem concerned. Samantha's condition however wont let her ignore it. We watch in disbelief as she gets sicker in the most creepy and uncomfortable of ways, while her life falls apart around her. All of this becomes too much for Samantha to bear, as her body withers so does her mind, until she finally succumbs to violent madness pulling you along for the ride!

I have to say this movie started off really strongly. I was pulled right into the story and although parts were predictable it didn't matter too much as the tension and creepiness of the movie more than made up for it. Samantha's mental breakdown led to some unexpected fun that was a nice change of pace for the film,and helped keep the story moving. The effects are done really well too, making for some cringe worthy moments! Viewers will find it almost hard to watch parts of this film as the symptoms ravage Samantha's body. There were a lot of things that worked in this movie to make it very watch worthy!

While many things worked for this film, some did not. This film really takes a high level of "suspension of disbelief" to really be able to get into. Samantha's condition gets to a point where it makes no sense why she isn't, either voluntarily or by force of the doctor who is treating her, at the hospital for treatment and quarantine purposes. The fact that neither happen are truly a hard sell to the viewer. Samantha's mother (Caroline Williams) is also a bit of a hard sell as she seems completely oblivious to her daughters medical demise in front of her eyes choosing instead to believe drugs are the issue, which is fairly ridiculous given her symptoms. However, if you can overlook those two glaring points the rest of the story is pretty good, with some decent twists.

I mostly enjoyed this one. Contracted was tense, interesting and aside from the disbelief issue, pretty absorbing. The ending of the film was a bit of a disappointment for me. It felt like a cop out of sorts. I really wish they had done something different, but I wont pan an otherwise good film for the final 5 minutes. All in all, this is worth a view, I'd definitely recommend renting this one, but I won't be adding it to my collection any time soon.

*HeatherOmen* TheHorrorNation.net

This was actually... not bad! It's not good. Not bad, somewhere in the middle. The makeup and symptoms are really creepy. The story is pretty basic, but it's interesting at least. The main thing that brings me down a bit is for sure the script/ the way it's delivered. All, and I really do mean ALL of the actors sound like they're reading line for line off of a script. I found the main character Samantha to be pretty annoying at times. You're telling me she is literally vomiting blood and she doesn't immediately go to the ambulance? Anyway, that's about it for my review. It's a slightly sub-par horror movie with a lot of great makeup work.

A satisfactory film. I watched it on Netflix after finding nothing else and came in with low expectations. While I wasn't blown away, I also wasn't disappointed. The main character is really the only developed one. Her dialogue and actions are interesting, but the other characters can simply be ignored. If you are looking for a movie with a good plot, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a movie that shows an interesting take on how one person can change in a short time in intense situations, look no further. "Contracted" is a good character profile, but is severely lacking in everything else. Character development here is great, but it's all that stands out in this movie. There are definitely better things to watch, but if you enjoy character analyzation and depth, "Contracted" is worth a look.