Writer: Eric England
Director: Eric England
Don’t touch anyone
The full title of this film is actually Contracted Phase 1. Which is important because as far as I’m concerned this isn’t a movie; it’s the first act of a movie dragged out to a tedious 80 minutes.
Samantha (Najarra Townsend) is a lesbian – a fact that for no good reason is made central to the film and drummed into our heads over and over again as if it’s unusual. At a party she is date-raped by a man with a taste for necrophilia…
When Samantha becomes sick she assumes it is ‘just’ an ordinary STD, however it soon becomes clear that it’s something far worse. Basically, she’s decomposing both physically and mentally without actually having died – a proto-zombie.
Which isn’t a bad setup for the film, but Contracted does absolutely nothing with it. We just follow Samantha as her life collapses; apart from the body deterioration it could be any slice-of-life breakdown. Things only start getting interesting about 20 minutes from the end.
Technically it’s competent with good performances from the actors and very nice make up effects. Camerawork is rather too shaky for my taste, but not to the extent of making the film unwatchable. The problems are simply the script and the lack of an interesting story.
Presumably England was trying to make a subtle, allegorical movie; Samantha’s collapsing body reflects her collapsing life after she’s dumped by her bitch of a partner (Nikki, played with relish by Kati Stegeman) and as her mother rejects her sexuality. All symbolised by her flower growing efforts.
The problem is that it just isn’t very interesting; a young person’s life collapsing is sad but not inherently gripping. And the idea of a morality tale about promiscuity is undermined by the fact that Samantha wasn’t a willing participant in the original encounter. The themes behind Contracted would make great subplots for a more traditional zombie movie, but on their own they’re pretty dull.
Contracted Phase 2 was released in 2015 and looks like it might actually be the movie I expected from part 1. But I’m in no rush to watch it.