It Follows is hailed as a masterpiece and one of the greatest films of 2014. We follow a young woman who encounters a malevolent creature set on killing her after a sexual encounter, akin to a supernatural STD. A year prior, Contracted gave audiences a taste of relationships gone bad; though it isn’t as widely known as It Follows, Contracted deserves some recognition for its story too.
Samantha attends a party trying to get over a recent break up. Another party-goer takes advantage of her, raping an inebriated Samantha after rejecting his advances. Unfortunately for her, he had just spent the night doing the same to biohazardous corpses in a morgue. Over the next few days, Samantha tries to treat what she thinks is an STD, but it slowly transforms her into something worse — a zombie with a violent streak and limited time.
Already we can see the similarities to It Follows: girl has sex with guy, guy gives her a special “gift,” girl is in danger of death via supernatural forces. It’s a shame that Contracted hasn’t garnered as much attention for a similar plot. I am not immune to bias, and I’d clearly pick It Follows every day of the week if it’s up against Contracted. Visuals are better. Soundtrack is better. Even the story, though arguably more convoluted and unexplainable, feels more legit. There are plenty of reasons I could name that at the end of the day wouldn’t matter; they’re two sides of the same stone, just with slightly different grooves and crevices.
Zombie movies are not my forte; they are one of my least favorite subgenres of horror. They tried to make zombies scarier by making them fast (although I generally label those guys as “infected,” which is a topic for a whole other article). So when I saw Contracted in my Netflix queue, I skipped right past it. Boredom later brought me to watch, where I confirmed my suspicion of this being just another Zombie flick. But after seeing Contracted pop up in other places, I decided I’d try again and see if I could look past this tedious tale of blood and “Braiinnnssss.” What I found was a tortured soul desperately fighting for her life. Desperation can make you do amazingly crazy things, just like Samantha did. She comes off as the most unlikable character, a terrible friend and an even worse daughter. I really can’t blame her though; who knows what was going on in her head between the fear of not knowing what’s happening to her and biological changes going on in her brain.
A major difference between Contracted and It Follows is in the effects and how they’re used. While It Follows has subtle scares and maybe a scene or two of more pronounced gore, it’s not a movie that wants — or needs — to rely on blood and guts. Contracted, on the other hand, uses gore to its advantage. Scenes involving Samantha’s worsening “menstrual cramps” and maggot-infested lady-bits will make your skin crawl. Her bloodshot eyes look incredibly real, and her skin turns a translucent white as time ticks away. A massive shoutout to the makeup and effects team for making Samantha one of the best looking and most realistic zombie’s I’ve ever seen. Samantha’s condition is rapidly declining, and just when you think it can’t get any worse, an intertitle appears on the screen: “DAY 3… OF 3.” This is it, the climax. Each day makes your heart race faster and faster, just like hers.
I don’t think it was unfair to immediately give this movie the cold shoulder, especially compared to massively popular films like It Follows. But I do think that giving Contracted a second chance actually did me some good. As I stated before, I don’t like Zombie movies, and I probably wouldn’t like It Follows either if it had one. However, the putrid bouquet of narrative that is a countdown of a girl slowly becoming undead was quite refreshing, a gem we didn’t realize we had until now. Sometimes judging a book by its cover blinds you from the small pieces of genius sprinkled throughout a movie, and giving films like Contracted a chance is an absolute must, especially during times when advertising pushes audiences to certain movies; thing is, horror fans always end up being drawn to low-key flicks with a killer story and awesome visuals.
Sections of article previously written for Morbidly Beautiful. This article has since been updated.
Contracted is a must see. Add it to your to be watched list.