Contracted (2013) – Review

Posted by maria kriva on March 7, 2014 · 10 Comments 

We are clearly looking at a whole different genre here, talking about the film Contracted. Mistakenly, it goes under the category of horror/thriller, however it doesn’t require an experienced eye to realize that this movie is beyond horror.

Mainly focusing on sickening perversion and ultimate disgust, Contracted takes the “virus/infection” subgenre to another level, putting aside fear and psychological horror.

The main character, troubled and heartbroken Samantha (Najarra Townsend) is brought into a very hard and painful situation when, devastated from her break up with her girlfriend Nikki ( Katie Stegeman ), she drinks her troubles away at her friend Alice’s party. A bizarre figure of a man seems to have set his eyes on her and is just waiting for the right moment to attack.

When Samantha loses control, he steps in and her night ends in unconsented  and unprotected sex. The next morning is the beginning of her decay.

At first, the symptoms are not worrying, however as the story progresses, Samantha seems to suffer from what appears to be a horrific sexually transmitted disease. Blood and rashes start making their appearance, until things get much more worse.

A detailed description would not be appropriate, as every part of her body is either bleeding, or decomposing or oozing worms. The rotten image of what used to be a very attractive girl is now a constant reminder of her suffering night with a stranger, who is clearly the source of all evil as the police have filed a warrant against him.

Everyone in her close environment doesn’t seem to be bothered by her ghastly looks. Her suffocating mother ( Caroline Williams – from Halloween II and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 to this) fed up with Samantha’s wild history in drugs, thinks that her daughter has turned to self-harm and often loses her temper with her. Her ex girlfriend in the sight of decayed Samantha gets extremely annoyed by the fact that she slept with a man and doesn’t seem to worry about her bleeding eyes or rotten teeth.

Riley (Matt Mercer), Sam’s friend who never got over his crush on her, gladly offers to console her and get intimate with her, only to realize that there was a barrier between them; worms and blood.

Images most certainly speak louder than words, so this plot synopsis cannot fully describe the level of unnecessary sickness and revolting perversion. Contracted is particularly problematic; the performances are very weak and it is clearly not offering a groundbreaking storyline. Additionally, it needs more than a tough stomach to cope with the inexplicable show of such sickening images.

In conclusion, Contracted is a very bad example of a horror film and can only be described as sick to the head, so you are warned. Unfortunately, the reasons behind its concept are not clear and it would be a very wrong idea to proceed with a sequel, considering its weird ending promises for some more.

 

Filed under Review · Tagged with contracted, deadly, Horror, infection, virus