Contracted (2013)

Just so...so bad

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

My goodness, what a potentially good low-budget horror film that went south quickly. There are many reviews that mention trying to have a "suspension of disbelief" while watching to enjoy, and I have to agree. However, I cannot get that far with this. I mean, there is not way in Hades that no one could not see what this poor character is going through! Not friends, not the doctor, not lovers, not where she works...wow!Najarra Townshend playing the title character lends decent acting to a bunch of unbelievable occurrences of character/characters in this story once she begins to deteriorate, and she does so rapidly. That part of this horror story does work well and creepy and disgustingly. Everything else, doesn't. Najarra plays a lesbian (well, maybe, maybe not, she's confused-or at least I was trying to figure that out too) who drowns her sorrows at a party after fighting with her lesbian-lover, meets a mysterious man (who is out of focus so you never know who he really is) who spikes her drink and rapes her. The next day, she begins to display some very nasty symptoms. Watching her deteriorate is not for the faint of heart, but she IS deteriorating. She does all the right things - goes to the doctor, calls her employer, etc. but no one who sees her treats her like the walking disaster she is!! Granted, she tries to continue with her life, but she looks like crap and everyone around her treats her like 'well, it's not so bad-but please take care of it when you have time'. Even the physician, which really makes one think.For me, I spent more time wondering about how bad her physician was once she began getting these weird symptoms than anything else that went on. I mean, she SAW all this and what does he do? "Get some over the counter creme". Really?!?! I had a time getting past that than all the things that happened because of it. Add on the self-centered oblivious mom, that you find out isn't really oblivious, but that she had to take care of her daughter during a difficult time and thinks this is it all over again - you sit and wonder, how much ignorance can these folks carry? Well, much - even if you try to suspend some of the actions of the characters. I just couldn't do it fully enough for this film. And the ending -- well, it wasn't very bad...it just could have been better given the circumstances leading up to it.

Contracted is an attempt at an edgy and original body horror film, but ends up looking like a C-level student film. I found myself laughing out loud during points in this film because of how little sense it made. Samantha is a young woman who is going through a rough patch with her girlfriend. (Although it is made clear in the film that Samantha is bisexual, she and the other characters regularly go around referring to her as a "lesbian." No idea there). She gets drunk at a friend's party and starts talking to an unknown man there, "BJ" (what a name), who is kept out of focus to make him appear more mysterious, which instead comes off very forced and obvious. He ends up drugging and raping her (despite the film's tagline of a "one night stand") and is never heard from again, nor is anyrhing more learned from him (save for one thing, more on that later). She wakes up the next morning at home with little recollection of what happened, but soon begins experiencing increasingly more disturbing symptoms, such as bloody discharge, headaches, and peeling/rotting skin, among other grotesqueries. While observing the dark and raised veins in her pubic region, one doctor makes the educated diagnosis of a "head cold and a rash." Somebody revoke his license. The main problem with this film is the script. despite a mildly interesting premise, the story suffers from atrocious dialogue and story points that go nowhere. The problems with Samantha and Nicole's relationship are only spoken of in vague terms and never explored. At a point in the film, BJ is being searched for by the police for, as Samantha'a friend puts it, "some child molester shit." Nothing else is spoken of him from then on. Samantha'a mother notices the deteriorating physical state of her daughter, and instead of immediately calling 911, angrily assumes Samantha is relapsing into a poorly explained drug habit. These plot elements don't have to be explained in detail, but the characters and their dynamics have to be compelling enough to make you want to know the answers. It is painfully obvious what is being intentionally unexplained, and the entirely unconvincing performances and horrible dialogue just add to the misery. The ending is so bizarre it's hard to explain. After separately murdering her girlfriend and friend by strangling them, with no physical struggle at all (is it that hard to roll over when you're being straddled by a decaying girl?) and infecting the boy that had been creepily crushing on her, she gets into a car wreck. Upon exiting the vehicle to the audience of police, bystanders, and her mother, she begins growing and flinging her arms at approaching pedestrians, before attacking her mother, where the screen cuts to black and the film abruptly and confusingly ends. I was genuinely laughing out loud during this whole sequence. To the credit of the cast, most of them are trying. With a better script, the actresses for Nicole and the mother could pull a convincing performance. The main actress, although entirely unconvincing in her delivery, is trying her best, and with some training and better direction, she could do better. The problem is that so little makes sense and the characters are so flat and unmemorable that there's no way to get into the illusion. Overall, bland, underwhelming, and shot through and through with confoundingly nonsensical plot points. Definitely good for a few laughs here and there though.

I kept watching this movie--wanting it to get better. It didn't. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone. Even my dog got up and walked away. I had so many questions and not one answer. This could have been a great thriller, but from the opening scene to the very end, this movie is confusing. It's all over the place with plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon. I think the director and producer realized they were in over their heads with this one, but kept pushing forward. Watch at your own risk.

Why does everyone hate this movie? It was disturbing, gross and terrifying. If you didn't want that then you shouldn't have watched a horror movie. I thought it was fantastically gross. I liked the real world setting. It's not the best horror movie, but it certainly isn't the worst.