Contracted

Movie Title--  Contracted

Release Year--  2013

Running Time--  1 Hour and 18 Minutes

Director--  Eric England

Cast--  Najarra Townsend, Caroline Williams, Alice Macdonald, Katie Stegeman, Matt Mercer, Charley Koontz, Simon Barrett, Ruben Pla

A woman starts to have very strange symptoms after a one night stand thinking that she has contracted a STD but it turns out to be much worse.

In the beginning of the film an unknown man is having sexual intercourse with a corpse that has a bio hazard tag on it's toe.  Later, it is revealed that his name is BJ (Simon Barrett) and he comes unwanted to a party that a woman named Alice (Alice Macdonald) is having.  Samantha (Najarra Townsend), one of Alice's friends shows up to the party a little down hearted and ready to drink away her break-up with girlfriend Nikki (Katie Stegeman).  At the party, Riley (Matt Mercer) and Zain (Charley Koontz) two friends of Alice's, attempt to flirt with Samantha but only get turned away.  After a few drinks, Samantha is approached by a man she doesn't know and he strikes up a conversation with her, handing her a spiked drink that he claims is one that she had and had set it down.  BJ persuades Samantha to have sex with him and takes her to his car but after the have started, Samantha begs him to stop before completely blacking out.

The next morning Samantha wakes up in her bed hungover.  She has a confrontation with her mother (Caroline Williams) and Samantha tells her that she is fine, although she clearly is not.  Samantha eats when she gets to work but to her it tastes funny and she just chalks it up to not feeling well and her menstrual cycle coming on.  Samantha soon hears from Alice and Alice tells her that the police is looking for someone that was at the party named BJ but she doesn't know why they are looking for him.  Samantha doesn't admit that she met BJ, she just lets Alice talk but gets off the phone with her when Nikki walks up.  The whole time Nikki is talking to Samantha, she seems very distant and uninterested in what she is saying.  

The next day, Samantha's condition has worsened and she goes to see a doctor.  After seeing her, the doctor tells her that he thinks that she has contracted an STD but he has to have some blood work done on her in order to tell her what is wrong.  Samantha then goes to see Nikki and upon arriving at her apartment, Nikki gives her her mail.  When Samantha finds an important letter that she has been waiting for and hears Nikki's attitude about it, she gets angry and leaves.  When Samantha wakes up for the third day in a row and is even worse than the day before, she begins to think that perhaps she may have something worse than an STD.

Although I am a fan of independent films, I will say this one was not one of my favorites.  That being said, I did really like the twist on the normal zombie film.  Instead of being bitten or contracting the disease and dying right away then coming back, this woman gets the disease and we as the audience get to see the progression from a healthy adult to undead monster.

This film is a little up in the air, watch it for the zombie progression but don't expect too much of a story, there was only enough there to attempt to keep the film moving forward.  Also, the opening scene with the man having sex with a corpse and then the date rape scene not too long after do seem to make the viewer a little bit uncomfortable.

Decide for yourself about this film but Don't Forget the Popcorn!