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.

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.

Any horror movie with a running length of under eighty minutes is bound to be low budget; therefore, questionable. Knowing this simple fact, I was able to be engaged in this rather slow paced horror film, despite the obvious plot holes and loose ends...

Pros: The main actress did a good job at the leading role. I didn't really like the main character, but ended up feeling sympathy for her in the end. The gore was subtle but still made you feel uneasy. Also the camera work portrayed the feeling of drunkenness well.

Cons: The plot definitely needed some work. The whole idea of being drugged (which is clearly implied) and then having unprotected sex with such horrific consequences is terrifying, but sadly an opportunity missed. Watch at your own risk!

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.

I can understand why there are so many poor reviews for this film, but I'm giving it a 5 purely and simply for the effort and hard work that Najarra Townsend clearly put into this movie. She actually put in a good shift as Samantha, putting lots of energy and emotion into her part, the talent ultimately outweighed the script.

In brief, Samantha is at the party of her friend Alice. Let down by her absent girlfriend she hits the drink hard. An anonymous man BJ gives her a spiked drink, and ends up making out in his car with her. The next morning Sam wakes up pale, with flu like symptoms and cramps. The following day things get a whole lot worse.

Now I'm a bit on the squeamish side, and a movie like this isn't particularly up my alley, but I braved it out, if you've got a weak stomach ignore, as some of it's a bit nasty, it does however reach a point where all reality is lost, she got so bad at one stage it became easier to watch. Poor girl had a rather useless mum, a dreadful girlfriend, who managed to be from Australia, South Africa, The USA and somewhere near Scunthorpe all with her multiple accents. As for her GP, bless him he must have trained at Hogwarts.

The soundtrack was a little irritating for the first 10 minutes, it was a little dated.

Surprisingly well acted I thought, the moral is never have a one night stand with a man with a fuzzy face :-) 5/10 (come on she deserves that for at least trying.)