Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Contracted: Phase II (2015) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Riley (Matt Mercer) finds himself growing violently sick from the virus he contacted so he sets out to find the man he believes is spreading it around.CONTRACTED: PHASE II is a sequel that picks up where the original film left off but to me this here is more of a remake than anything else. I enjoyed the first film a great deal and this one here is basically just a copy of it, although it's not nearly as good. With that said, if you enjoy these body harming horror films then there's enough violence and gore here for you.I think the biggest issue with this film is that it really doesn't offer us anything we didn't see in the first film. I'd also argue that we don't care for Riley like we did Sam in the first film. However, this type of film is made to make your skin crawl and there are several disgusting scenes here. As with the first there's a lot of gore, blood vomiting and creepy things being dug out of flesh. The violence and gore certainly matches the first film and it will keep fans into the picture.The performances were all good and especially Marianna Palka and Anna Lore. Director John Forbes does a good job with the material and delivers a well-made and professional looking film. CONTRACTED: PHASE II isn't a masterpiece but it delivers what you'd expect it to.

I think it stands without warning that this contains spoilers.First thing I'd like to address is Riley being so out of character in this movie. In the first, it was established that he was a shy & awkward kind of guy that although seemed a lil off- putting, he truly meant the best. Well this sequel for some odd reason completely ignores that fact and portrays him as a bad ass. He withholds information from police when asked about the Samantha, Nikki, Alice, and some other girl when he had no reason to do it in the first place. Thus making the police believe he is a suspect. Might I also address the female police officer/detective who has a Scottish accent who makes multiple mistakes through out the movie that makes me doubt she's even an officer of the law. Other than mourning dead friends and witnessing people contract the sexually transmitted necrophiliac STD, we get a chance to see what BJ looks like and hopefully witnessed his death. I really hope he's dead at least. Riley also has a girl named Harper who randomly comes out of nowhere and has no significance to the plot. Other than witnessing her pull out her own eye ball, she really didn't interest me.This movie could've done better plot wise as to actually further the plot. We didn't get much far other than Riley's and BJ's death.

This film is only 1 hours 18 minutes including end credits which is slightly shorter than the previous one, which had a run-time of 1 hour 24 minutes. The film has more special effects than the previous film and has a better plot.Some characters from the first one reprise their role. The actress that played Samantha from the first film isn't in the film. The film shifts to phase 2, which means that the necroa virus is in the spreading phase. Since it is so highly contagious, it comes into notice of certain members of the F.B.I. Riley(Matt Mercer) who had sex with Samantha in the first film has now contracted the virus and it is now rapidly turning him into a zombie. He rushes to a doctor who takes a blood sample and tells him to wait for the results to arrive. Meanwhile Matt thinks back to the time Samantha was raped by an unknown stranger who passed this infection to her. Matt decides to track down this stranger in the hopes of finding a cure.Verdict: the special-effects in the film are very good. There is a lot more action(even sub-machine gun action at one point) in this film. The acting and direction is okay to make this film above average. Again this film to me is just a time-pass film which I'll never watch again or add to my collection.More Zombi Movies? Zombie 2(1979 Lucio Fulci Masterpiece), Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974), Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror (1981), George Romero's Zombie Trilogy: Night of the Living Dead (1968 colorized version available), Dawn of the Dead (1978 cult status film and considered to be the best zombie film ever made), Day Of The Dead(1985), C.H.U.D. (1984), C.H.U.D. II - Bud the Chud (1989), The Return of the Living Dead (1985), Return of the Living Dead II (1988), Return of the Living Dead III (1993 a.k.a Mortal Zombie directed by acclaimed director Brian Yuzna), Flight of the Living Dead (2007), Peter Jackson's Braindead(1992 the best Zombie special-effects I have ever seen and it is a cult status film and considered to be Jackson's masterpiece), Re-Animator(1985. Stuart Gordon's cult status film based on master of horror H.P. Lovecraft), Bride Of The Re-animator(1989 directed by Brian Yuzna), Beyond Re-Animator (2003. The final closing chapter and I consider this film to be Yuzna's masterpiece). As an after thought I add the Brad Pitt movie World War Z(2013) and George Romero's Land Of The Dead(2005).Many thanks for reading. May you lead a long and happy life.

Eric England's Contracted came on horror radars almost as fast as an epidemic or a bout of syphilis. It was a nasty little horror film, buoyed by a terrific central performance by the young Najarra Townsend as a young woman victim to a terrible sexually transmitted disease that eventually turned her into a walking zombie. England held his focus on Townsend's poor soul throughout the film, so we could see a gradual and frightening transition from a normal woman into a blood-thirsty, inhuman beast. It was a terrific example of how the most affecting horror films don't often feature numerous jumpscares or big budgets to back up their ambition.Now comes the inevitable Contracted: Phase II, fresh off a very low-key video-on-demand release (I had no idea of its release until a day before it was released) and a whirlwind of production issues, most of which publicized by England himself, who started as the film's writer and director and winds up without even a "special thanks" credit on the end product. Anyone vaguely familiar with the underground horror scene of late knows of the numerous problems this particular film faced, from several directorial and screen writing shakeups, and the same people will likely be disappointed to hear that the end result feels like an amalgamation of several different script ideas without a shred of cohesion and purpose.Contracted was a very methodical horror film; conservatively paced, but always interesting from a situational standpoint, England always found a way to connect you with the character at hand and knew how to make the audience wince at the grotesque moments on-screen. Contracted: Phase II feels perfunctory where the original film felt natural; it feels like the byproduct of studio greed and manipulation over a product that succeeded primarily for the love of the genre.The film concerns Riley (Matt Mercer), who is left to search for a cure to the virus that took over his friend Samantha (Townsend) and several of her friends. Riley winds up developing the same sort of ugly afflictions on his back and arms that Samantha did in the early stages of her STD, and races against the clock with a woman named Harper (Anna Lore) as the two try to combat the virus and find its source before the world is at the mercy of blood-thirsty zombies.Lost in translation is the realism factor that made the original Contracted such a thrill; it genuinely seemed like a simple instance of a woman partaking in a one-night-stand only to have the repercussions affect her for the rest of her life. This film enhances things on a larger, more corporate scale, citing sources for all the ugliness and increasing the stakes which, for horror films in particular, is ripe for implausibility and complete exaggeration of something that once worked so well because it was so simple.Contracted: Phase II also woefully lacks cohesion, for the first fifteen minutes of the film involve an interrogation of Riley over the death of Samantha and Alice before scenes take over, in a very vignette-style structure, showing the growth of Riley's ugly illness as well as him dealing with the illness of others. The result is a film that becomes a repetitive and dreary slog all too quickly, losing its intimate focus and feeling like a narrative hodgepodge with no clear-cut vision whatsoever.This is a real shame, with Contracted being such a rare film; a film made with little money that seemed doomed to fail after potential financial backers turned the other cheek when it was shown a variety of festivals. After a big hit in Sweden, Contracted was acquired by IFC Films, famous for their IFC Midnight brand of schlocky horror films, and the rest resulted in minor independent film history as a horror film that rebounded to become something of a sleeper hit almost overnight. Contracted: Phase II is a pitiful excuse for a followup, ugly and forgettable, in addition to being completely void of purpose or a vision when it comes to building off of the truly strong, stable ground that was laid before it.Starring: Matt Mercer and Anna Lore. Directed by: Justin Forbes.