Contracted

'Not your average one night stand'.

They've got that completely right. 'Contracted' is the latest feature from Eric England, the director of 2011's 'Madison County'. This is a truly disgusting body horror opus. Did it make my skin crawl? Yeah. But does that mean it's a good film? Not necessarily.

If you consider gore scary, you'll be freaked out. Hands down. I, on the other hand, was among the majority of film-goers. Grossed out but infuriated. One might ask, "Why were you infuriated?" The characters were completely irrational and unrealistic. It was a total turn-off from the film and it's interesting concept. Eric England could have taken this film into such disturbing heights with what Samantha was contracted with but instead, the film overstayed its welcome in a boring place. If the characters were more realistic, the film would have probably been much better.

The effects in the film are really well done, however. Also, I enjoyed the ending and Najarra Townsend's acting was definitely a plus. Her transformation in character was truly a shocking performance.

If you're into body horror and gross-out flicks, then Contracted is for you. If you're looking for a good plot with smart characters, look elsewhere.

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

Contracted: harsh reviews so far, therefore I'll be the first to change the pace a little.

I've watched horror ever since I can remember, love it, all types, slashers, zombies, ghosts and so on. I graded this one with a 6, maybe a little more than I should, but it definitely has to be over 5, and I'll give you the reasons: 1) the plot was pretty OK, more complex than you see at others 2) characters were divert, one of that, one of this, pretty much natural people 3) dialogue: seems dumb sometimes, might be OK if you consider the nature of the situation each time 4) the ending: did not see that one coming, I for one thought it was heading to a different conclusion.

I actually was drawn into it, I will not criticize the fact that it didn't rely on gore, blood or nudity, always loved diversity. So, to this strange little movie, that shows how a girl can change over the days, I say: bravo! It was not great, but it does move you slowly to the edge of the seat.

Contracted: worth a shot!

Cheers!

No spoilers here, best part about this film is that it's short and to the point. Has a lot of nonsensical moments but the overall plot is intriguing. What didn't make much sense was how nobody around the central character did anything to point out how bad her situation was until it was too late.