Contracted (2013)

Number Rolled: 50

Movie Name/Year: Contracted (2013)

Tagline: Don’t touch anyone.

Genre: Thriller, Drama, Horror

Length: 84 minutes

Rating: NR

Production Companies: BoulderLight Pictures, Southern Fried Films

Producer: Eric England, J.D. Lifshitz, Raphael Margules, Matt Mercer, Joshua Petrino

Director: Eric England

Writer: Eric England

Actors: Najarra Townsend, Caroline Williams, Alice Macdonald, Matt Mercer, Katie Stegeman, Charley Koontz, Simon Barrett, Ruben Pla, E-Kan Soong, Dave Holmes

Stunt Doubles: None

Blurb from Netflix: After a one-night stand, a young woman becomes alarmingly ill -- but what she thinks is a sexually transmitted disease turns out to be far worse.

Selina’s Point of View:

I’ll admit this is the first time I’ve seen necrophilia used to precipitate a zombie plot, but that small bit of originality is the only somewhat good thing I can offer about Contracted.

The worst part of the film was, without doubt, the dialogue.

Writer, Eric England (Roadside, Madison County, Get the Girl), has some really good ideas, but dialogue and character development are not his strong suits. His portrayal of lesbianism was beyond ridiculous, to the point of being offensive, and the interactions between… well… anyone was like watching a high school play. Not one of those good high school plays put on by an art school that specializes in it, either.

Aside from the writing issues, the acting wasn’t very good. The medical interactions weren’t in the least bit realistic and the way each actor portrayed their character was almost lazy.

Also, just a side note, Netflix needs to work on their wording. A roofied woman does not have a one-night stand. She gets raped. IMDb had the description right, I don’t know what Netflix’s problem is. It really doesn’t spoil the plot to be honest there.

I wanted Contracted to be better. I wanted to enjoy the film. Unfortunately, we can’t like everything we watch. That’s just not how the world works.

Cat’s Point of View:

What...did I just watch? I’m not even sure where to begin.

I’ll open with saying that this movie is not for the squeamish. While I do appreciate that they left a good bit to the imagination regarding the gory visual details of the body horror here, the movie was still full of plenty of disgusting gag-worthy stuff.

I am not so sure that thriller is an accurate genre here, but drama and horror definitely fit. Unfortunately, it’s overly dramatic horror.

I am not sure if it was the actors or if it was result of script and direction, but things were off from the beginning. 

This film fell prey to scenes and dialogue feeling forced, stilted, overdone, or just falling flat. There were too many awkward moments that just left me feeling uneasy – and not because of what was happening with the lead. That doesn’t even take into consideration a few plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon.

I’m really struggling to find something positive to say about this movie, and that bugs me.

This film is part 1 of a 2-part series. Contracted: Phase II (2015) seems like it might pick up where this movie leaves off. Perhaps it might mend those plot holes, and I’m tempted to watch it just to see. Whether or not that is the case, it’s a shame that this concept wasn’t explored better in the first installment.

Languages

Speech Available: English

Subtitles Available: English, Spanish

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 53%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 29%

Metascore - 48/100

Metacritic User Score – 5.9/10

IMDB Score – 5.3/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 1.5/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 1.5/5

Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: R

Movie Trailer: