CONTRACTED: VIRAL DECAY AND THE TERRIFYING TOLL OF BODY HORROR

A Disquieting Descent: ‘Contracted’s’ Portrait of Bodily Horror

“Don’t ignore the symptoms.” This terse piece of dialogue from Contracted, a film suffused with a clammy sense of dread, captures the essence of this 2013 horror flick directed by Eric England. As its harrowing tale unfolds, we witness a young woman’s body betray her in the most grotesque ways imaginable following a one-night stand that leads to a horrifying infection. Without delving into spoilers, the premise stacks upon our intrinsic fear of disease and the loss of control over our own flesh. But does the execution do justice to its creepy concept?

Nightmarish Intimacies: Setting the Foreboding Stage

The ambiance of Contracted does indeed craft a looming, suffocating atmosphere, reflective of the protagonist’s internal and external turmoil. From the outset, the pallor of dread hangs heavy, a testament to director England’s targeted approach to build tension slowly but relentlessly. As viewers, we are dragged through increasingly uncomfortable scenes of bodily decomposition that are skeletally intimate and alarmingly personal. Tension is notched up not by what is immediately shown, but by what is impending, echoing the old adage, “the anticipation of the blow hurts more than the strike itself.”

Cinematic Decay: The Eyes of Horror

The cinematography in Contracted is a compelling counterpart to the story’s devolution. The camera voyeuristically lingers on normalcy before pouncing on the gruesome transformation that serves as the film’s central conceit. Stark lighting and a desaturated color palette mirror the protagonist’s physical and psychological deterioration, while the use of close-ups renders their ordeal claustrophobically personal. There’s an absence of polished special effects, which is both a budgetary constraint and a stylistic choice that roots the horror in a grimy realism.

As for the sound design, it operates hand-in-glove with the visuals to grip the viewer; the hiss of decaying flesh, the unnerving silence before a reveal, and the cacophony of a world moving on as the protagonist’s deteriorates are all testament to the sound’s efficacy. Sound, or sometimes the lack of it, augments the dreadful anticipation that the film fosters so well.

Fractured Reflections: Characters and Performances

The emotional core of Contracted, and what makes its horrors so palpable, is found in the embodiment of the unfortunate lead character, Samantha, played hauntingly by Najarra Townsend. Her performance lays bare the vulnerability and the desperate floundering of a woman whose body has turned against her. However, while Townsend’s portrayal is convincingly desperate and decayed, the film sometimes suffers from underdeveloped supporting characters, reducing potential relational tensions to mere background noise in comparison to Samantha’s vivid struggle.

The film predominantly explores the body horror subgenre and relentlessly adheres to the visceral mechanics that underpin it. It challenges the viewer’s threshold for watching physical corruption in agonizing detail, leaving less room for the psychological terror that can sometimes amplify the effects of the gore depicted on screen.

Within the Rot: Themes and Societal Commentary

Underneath its festering surface, Contracted does attempt to spread into broader thematic territory. It circles around issues of sexual freedom and responsibility, communicable diseases, and even hints at the stigma attached to sexually transmitted infections. However, these potential insights are not as fully realized as they could be, leading to a horror experience that is more surface-level shock than profound revelation.

In terms of effectiveness, Contracted is not so much about the fear of a lurking bogeyman but the terror of one’s body as the enemy within, a vessel turning on itself in an unwatchable performance of decay. It’s genuinely disturbing and squeamishly innovative in its approach to the body horror genre; however, it’s more of a connoisseur’s choice than a mainstream scare-fest.

Infected Conclusions: To Watch or Not to Watch?

This movie might best resonate with die-hard fans of the body horror sub-genre; those who find a certain poetry in corporeal deterioration and are looking for gut-wrenching, visceral cinema. For casual viewers or those with a weak stomach, this film’s graphic content—which includes depictions of disease and bodily degradation—may prove too unsettling. Contracted is not an easy watch by any means, but it surely tests the boundaries of what is tolerable in a horror movie.

Contracted may not shine bright like the classics that have defined the genre, or sit squarely alongside contemporaries that balance gore with a gripping narrative. Its strengths and weaknesses vacillate like the stages of its disturbing ailment. Yet, it must be recommended, if cautiously, for those curious for a film that doesn’t shy away from exposing the horrors tucked beneath our skin. As a final advisory, be prepared for the disturbingly corporeal; the squeamish need not attend this disconcertingly literal breakdown of the human body.