“Contracted” (2013) actually begins with a creative, compelling premise for a zombie-horror movie — what if the zombie contagion began as a sexually transmitted disease, and we viewers followed the horrifying experiences of patient zero at the pandemic’s inception?
Unfortunately, any praise this movie deserves ends there. It’s poorly written. I get the sense that writer-director Eric England has only the vaguest ideas about what a primary care physician does or says, or how any medical professional might react to an unidentified contagion. He also shows us a world in which the local police are evidently responsible for investigating disease outbreaks, and where 20-somethings are sexually attracted to partners who are visibly, violently ill with what looks like some kind of flesh-eating plague.
England’s direction is also lackluster, as is most of the acting. (An exception is that of lead actress Najarra Townsend.)
This story actually gets interesting when the viewer finally sees its events in tragic context — but that takes places less than two minutes before the credits roll. (You’ll understand what I mean if you manage to sit through this.)
I’d give “Contracted” a 2 out of 10 for a creative story idea, and I’d recommend you skip it.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 