Contracted: Phase II

Riley is having a horrible time: he finally had sex with his long-time crush Samantha who had some sort of weird disease. He immediately goes to the doctor to get checked out and then goes about his daily life. It's pretty clear that he does have the disease and is unwittingly spreading it around by bleeding everywhere. The disease is also spreading everywhere outside of his immediate circle, causing quarantines in local hospitals. Riley's search to find the creator of the disease BJ makes him a target and BJ starts stalking and harassing him. Can Riley find a cure for this zombie disease?

Contracted wasn't a perfect film, but it was enjoyable and unique. Contracted: Phase II doesn't really take anything from the first movie and is simply a generic zombie/body horror film with no subtley, good acting, or really anything interesting, The only good part about the movie is the gore and the practical effects: very squicky and realistic looking. Other than that, I pretty much hated everything. Phase II starts right where the first one left off: with zombified Samantha killing people. She dies in literally the first minute of the sequel, but not before killing her mother. Then the rest of the movie focuses on Riley, whiny guy with an unrequited crush on Samantha. I hated him in the last movie for prioritizing his own feelings (and his penis) over helping Samantha. She clearly needed help and he simply took advantage of her plus he saw her being raped and did nothing. I don't really want to watch a movie about him, but at least he's infected with a zombie STD. He pretty much goes through much of what Samantha did in the first film: discovering he is infected, trying to go about his daily life and failing, and infecting everyone around him. If it was covered in the last film, it really doesn't need to be done again.

Phase II is completely different from the first. The camera work goes shaky and out of focus at times without rhyme or reason. Even the zombie disease has different symptoms. Riley is prone to fits of ear pain with high pitched sounds, which never happened in the first film. The only symptoms that are the same are red eyes and the maggot/meal worms. Continuity errors are all over when Riley sometimes has red eyes and sometimes doesn't. Makeup and blood doesn't match from the scene prior super obviously. It's like there wasn't any effort to be consistent from scene to scene. One of the most infuriating scenes has Riley killing a zombie girl with a knife through the back of the mouth. How does that even remotely make sense? There's also a pointless scene were Riley cuts the worms out of him with a knife while very badly acting in pain. The bad acting is just everywhere. If I never see Riley's face twisted in over the top pain again, I will be truly happy. The only person who acted worse was Crystal, the police officer. Her affect is so flat she seems to have no emotions at all. Her first scene had her drinking tea about 20 times, but clearly faking it. Why would she even do this? So unnecessary and distracting. Plus every single thing out of her mouth is delivered ineptly and insincerely. Her character makes the worst decisions ever like going to BJ's house to investigate by herself with no backup.

Contracted: Phase II fails on pretty much every level. It's a little gross, but gore doesn't create suspense or compelling characters or an interesting story. The majority of the film just retreads what the last film did with a different, more unlikeable character. The whole film is pointless. Riley seems to be wanting to make BJ give him the cure, but I never believed for a second that he would be able to. The film is just him roaming around, infecting all of his loved ones with zombie disease and stumbling around like a moron. The ending is painfully obvious and there aren't any real surprises. If you liked the first Contracted, you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for a generic, formulaic zombie movie, you might enjoy it. I didn't and I wouldn't recommend it.

My rating: 2/10 fishmuffins