MovieChat Forums > Contracted (2013) Discussion > One of the most infuriating movies to wa...

One of the most infuriating movies to watch

posted 10 years ago by AGreenman19
62 replies | jump to latest

Watch out, huge rant incoming, but I think you guys will enjoy it.

Every single character was completely irrational. I started keeping notes about halfway through, so the irrationality might be a little thin for the first part. Anyway, I'll try to go in order:

MOM: What is wrong with this lady? Why is it that the first thought on her mind is that Sam has been drinking or doing drugs, when she looks like some sort of bubonic plague victim?

She seems to think her daughter is some horrible person, hell-bent on destroying her own life, despite the fact that Sam appears to have no idea what's going on, and is expressing shock at things like the water being too hot, yet Mom immediately jumps to those self-destruction conclusions and even walks out on her, even though Sam looks like a bubonic plague victim and just gave herself severe burns. Nice to see you care, Mom!

SAM: When things finally get bad, she's on her way to the doctor when her boss, George, calls. So what does she do? She goes to work, despite waking up in a pool of blood, both menstrual and vomit, losing her tooth, and bleeding out from underneath her fingernails. "Fine, I'll be there in a minute". Are you kidding me?!

GEORGE: Finally someone notices how bad she looks, and even says "Yeah, you should go [to the doctor]." So what does he do next? Sends her back to work! WHAT?!

RILEY: Wow, he seems to be the only sensible character and offers to take her to the doctor. Sam of course lashes out about some drama crap: "Stay away from me!" Uh, shouldn't you be worried about your health, before telling people to stay out of your personal life?

SAM: Finally at the doctor. Again. The doctor says, "Don't come into contact with anyone." So what's the first thing Sam does after hearing this? Right, she comes into contact with someone.

DOCTOR: Speaking of the doctor, what a *beep* doctor he is! How useless! "Yeah, it looks like something's wrong with you... looks like an STD." No *beep* Well, what kind of STD? "I don't know, but it's probably an STD." Has this guy ever seen a sickness in his life? I'm sure he's seen loads of STDS... was he not at all concerned that this doesn't look like a SINGLE KNOWN SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE???

ALICE: Notices Sam is all kinds of messed up, but is more concerned about going to the police and telling their story, despite the fact that Sam looks like a bubonic plague victim. Priorities.

SAM: When she blows up at Riley and Alice, accusing them of trying to manipulate her life when she is fscking DYING. She should be WAY more concerned with what's happening to her than petty relationships and other high school drama. If I was in her position, I would be thinking of absolutely NOTHING else other than my own malady, not playing the blame game with other people while my life hangs in the balance.

MOM: Here she appears with the psychiatrist guy, and immediately starts asking if she's been drinking, when Sam has these enormous blue veins coursing across her face and arms, looks like a DEAD BODY, has blue-grey lips, and teeth are rotting out of her head. How is it even possible that Mom is this oblivious?

PSYCHIATRIST: I liked this part. First I thought he was an actual medical doctor who had come to diagnose Sam (presumably Mom finally came to her senses), but it turns out he's just a psychiatrist! While Sam and Mom are bickering, you can see the change in the Psych's face, and you start to think that maybe he's the ONLY sensible person in this whole goddamn movie, because maybe he's noticing her teeth or the fact that she looks like a dead body, but then he blurts out, "Well then talk, Samantha, tell us what's wrong!"

ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

SAM: Then she goes to the fscking plant place, holding her DEAD plant, looking like a dead fscking body... what the HELL is she thinking? However, at this point, I can accept that the illness is probably going to her head, making her do crazy stuff, so I will no longer comment on what Sam is doing.

RECEPTIONIST: Doesn't seem terribly concerned at the sores on her face and giant blue veins, as well as generally looking like a dead body. I would've called an ambulance right there on the spot.

NIKKI: COMPLETELY 100% concerned about how Sam "fscked a man", despite seeing that she looks like a FSCKING DEAD BODY. What the hell is wrong with people's priorities in this movie?!

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HOW IS NOBODY AT ALL CONCERNED THAT SHE LOOKS LIKE A CORPSE
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SAM: I know I said I wouldn't comment on Sam anymore, but I just couldn't get over her "I'm all alone now" line. JESUS FSCKING CHRIST. You're concerned about being all alone when you are DYING?????

ALICE: She KISSES Sam! I WOULD NEVER KISS SOMETHING THAT LOOKED LIKE THAT

I'm going to ignore the subsequent murderous rampage, because of all the crap that has happened in the movie, this actually makes the most sense. Interesting.

Holy *beep*

And what about that total red herring with BJ? What the hell? What was even the point of mentioning that the police was looking for him if there was not going to be any explanation why or any sort of resolution at all? So what if he was a child molester? That has absolutely no relevance on the story of this movie! What were the police going to do once they caught him? How would that further the story at all? What the hell was the point?

[–] The_Sedgwicks_Daughter 10 years ago

Your frustrations have seem to have gotten you engrossed to the point where you've written a whole essay on this dumb movie...I think you are absolutely right on each point. The whole time I just wanted her to get to the ER.

[–] AGreenman19 10 years ago

I usually never go all out with full essays when it comes to movies, even the ones I absolutely adore. I just found this one so downright appalling that I simply couldn't help myself!

This write-up seems tame compared to how loudly I was yelling at my TV and pulling my hair out!

[–] chinaski2323 8 years ago

What I want to know is how this piece of schlock had a SEQUEL made! I agree with all your points, the way everybody reacts to this zombie is so unbelievable it's laughable.

The only defense I can give to the way Sam acts (why she doesn't follow doctor's orders, ect) is because the disease is driving her insane. That's actually an interesting premise. But everybody's reaction to her makes the move a joke.

[–] MARTYxMCFLY 10 years ago

Agreed. Next, try watching Compliance

[–] parvati_patil_mm24 9 years ago

That movie was also infuriating, given how irrational people were acting, but psychology has given some explanations on it. And at least a couple of people were actually thinking clearly there! Now, "Contracted", just didn't make any sense! There was not a single person acting logically!

[–] Iron_Gland 9 years ago

Except Compliance was a true story. Look up Louise Ogborn. Compliance was based on her. They changed the names, but everything else really happened. Baffling, but it happened.

[–] cesarecesarini 10 years ago

So what if he was a child molester? That has absolutely no relevance on the story of this movie!

Nobody said he was a child molester. Alice just said, "they put out an alert about him on the *beep* news this morning like they do with child molesters. I mean, they said he could be dangerous".

[–] AGreenman19 10 years ago

*beep* you're right; just went back and checked. I guess at this point I was getting so fed up with one irrational act after another that I misheard it.

Still would've been nice to see some sort of explanation about who BJ was or why he was arrested. That plotline still serves no relevance because it had zero effect on the outcome of the story. Why even bother mentioning that they were looking for him or that he was arrested if they weren't going to do anything with it? Just a waste of time.

[–] sfu13 10 years ago

Despite all the problems and issues with this movie, my gf and I actually quite enjoyed it haha. To answer your question about BJ, at the beginning, he was having sex with a corpse with a biohazard tag on it. BJ most likely was a "patient zero" carrying the zombification virus and spreading it.

[–] tra1n_n_va1n 10 years ago

I caught the Bio Hazard tag too, and that's another BS dumbo part of this movie as ALL dead bodies are considered bio hazards!

I think this movie was sh*!. "The message" was a lazy mess wrapped in slut-shaming and hetero sex condemnation and wow at how straight dudes were portrayed.
I don't know anything about the film-maker, but it feels like what a straight man thinks are the problems lesbians face. And, you know, encased in a horror movie that didn't know if it wanted to be a plague film, or aliens, or vampires, or necrophilia... rape? drugs r bad, mmmkay? lesbians shouldn't bang dudes? Orchids are vaginas... or some crap symbolism?

Blah. What a mess.

You better understand I'm in love with myself Myself My beautiful self

[–] Xslayerlive 10 years ago

Agreed on every point. Is there some hidden meaning in this movie I'm not understanding. I normally do not go deep in thought into movies however I just cannot understand this one. Everyone is completely oblivious to whats happening to her.

[–] tfrazier 10 years ago

There is a meaning to this movie, and I don't think it's hidden, it's quite obvious. It shows much homophobia, and chauvinism there is in the world. She was naive, and unsure about her sexuality. Her "girlfriend" was an absolutely horrible, despicable excuse for a human being. She know she was naive, and took advantage of the situation. Even the doctor during the first visit treated her like she was a whore, and treated her like she deserved it. I don't get all the negative reviews. Because of them I wasn't going to watch it. I got engrossed in it. I'm glad I did, and kind of wish I didn't watch it. This is quite possibly the most disturbing movie I have ever seen in my life.

[–] Vohn_exel 10 years ago

This is everything that irritated me about this movie. I kept expecting an "its all in your head " twist.

"The Square Root of Nine is Three!"

[–] BadMovieCrusader 10 years ago

lol the only thing I can say in rebuttal is "It's a horror movie." If people acted rationally they'd never investigate the weird sound or go looking for their dead friends or open the door to the basement, or read the creepy ancient text that summons demons because it'd be fun...

I've just sort of come to accept stupid behavior by characters in horror movies. Of course everyone behaved stupidly in this movie but they kinda have to. If she goes to the hospital right off the bat and the doctors there behave rationally then she's never leaving that hospital and yeah, you could have taken the story in that direction but then it's a different story.

I think with these movies you just have to suspend disbelief and go into it hoping for some gory actions, some cool effects, good looking death scenes, etc. That, to me, is the key to just enjoying these B flicks for what they are.

[–] DOA70 10 years ago

I actually forgave the writers for Sam's inexplicable behavior. I have been sick near to the point of death and the entire time I lived a life of denial. Had my mother not taken me to the ER, I probably would have died. So having actually lived such an absurd level of hiding the truth from myself, I could actually believe her behavior. It was the people around her, especially the medical doctor, that drove me bat poo crazy. To me, that was just inexcusably lazy writing.

Also, the BJ guy wasn't a red herring - he was the source. The story around him was to build the tension. By beating us over the head that this guy was bad/dangerous, it was supposed to make us worry even more about what was happening to her.

All in all I actually liked the movie, but with a little better writing, it could have been an amazing movie.

[–] channaart 10 years ago

Had my mother not taken me to the ER,

Ah, but that's the original poster's point. In real life, that's how a mother behaves. In this film, the mom just ignored her child's condition and focused instead on this drama she had going on in her head.

[–] DOA70 10 years ago

Oh, I completely agree that the people around her behaved most unrealistically.

I wonder though ... if I had gone through drug rehab and created all kinds of grief through drug abuse - would my mother have behaved similarly? After all, we often see what we want, rather than what is ... perhaps that was one of the subtler messages of the film? Or sloppy writing. Take your pick. :D

[–] Naldoman 8 years ago

I agree that Sam's odd behavior is okay because she's messed up. I think of the film as psychological horror. We see Sam as the infection has ravaged her body and mind. That's our AUDIENCE perspective.

The characters in the movie don't see what we see to the same extent. Her symptoms don't show nearly as much to them. In this way they only think her problems are minor.

Yeah - I don't think they intended it that way - just my way of allowing a lot of the nonsense.

[–] cherry_d0ll 10 years ago

psychiatrists ARE medical doctors...

[–] barrin21 9 years ago

Meh.

[–] Eve_of_Destruction 9 years ago

But they are... Meh or not.

[–] joshua_carpino 8 years ago

yeah,right.