Contracted (DVD Review) - IFC

USA/2013
Directed By: Eric England
Written By: Eric England
Starring: Najarra Townsend, Caroline Williams, Matt Mercer
Color/84 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: March 18, 2014

The Film
Samantha is a beautiful girl with a troubled past including heavy drug use. She has recently moved back in with her mother who is a bit overly religious for their own good. While partying at her friend Alice's house one night Samantha gets drugged and ends up having sex with a random dude. The next morning Samantha wakes up with a killer hangover and bloodstained all around her panties. Samantha's sickness grows worse and worse with rashes, bloodshot eyes, vomiting blood, fingernails falling off and plenty more. The sickness is eating away at her mentally as well, her relationship with her girlfriend is falling apart, her friendship with Alice is succumbing to her own paranoia and her mother, who only wants to help can't do anything. I guess that's what happens when you get raped by a man who recently fucked a biohazard corpse.

CONTRACTED is a stomach churning piece of body-horror that channels classic David Cronenberg. Najarra Townsend plays the troubled and sick Samantha with grace and successfully carries the film as the script required. Caroline Williams is solid as the religiously oppressive mother with good intentions. I was afraid Williams would overact or be too cheesy but she is good. In fact just about the entire cast is good. The character of Kate, Samantha's girlfriend is written to be overbearing and almost cartoonish. It doesn't hurt the overall product though. The makeup done on Samantha as she gets sicker and sicker looks very natural and well done, adding to the gag inducing nature of the film. At its heart CONTRACTED is a film about Samantha and her relationships, set in a body-horror film. The ending sets up a situation that could make for a very entertaining sequel, or had the movie been paced quicker an exciting 2nd and 3rd act. Horror fans should check out CONTRACTED but not on a full stomach... you'll be mopping up the mess.

The Audio & Video
A strong looking disc from IFC. The colors and flesh tones all appear to be natural, even in their sickly state. Clarity is very strong even for a DVD. I didn't notice any issues with the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer at all. As for the sound, a 5.1 Dolby Digital track handles the dialogue and pounding soundtrack more than capably and again I found nothing wrong with the track. A job well done. 

The Extras
-Audio commentary with writer/director Eric England, editor Josh Ethier, cinematographer Mike Testin, and composer Kevin Riepl
-Audio commentary with director and cast
-"Making Of" featurette
-Najarra Townsend audition tape
-Animated Pitch
-Behind The Scenes Promo
-Trailer

The Bottom Line
A solid body-horror film that will gross out anyone even with the strongest stomach due to its realistic sick factor. Wear you condoms kids.

CONTRACTED is available HERE

Argento's Dracula (Blu-ray Review) - IFC

Italy/2012
Directed By: Dario Argento
Written By: Dario Argento, Antonio Tentori, Stefano Piani, Enrique Cerezo
Starring: Thomas Kretschmann, Asia Argento, Rutger Hauer
Color/110 Minutes/Not Rated
Region A

The Film
Dario Argento, a man that has seen the top of the horror mountain. He is responsible for popularizing the giallo genre, along with writing some of the best spaghetti western films. Hearing his name instantly brings about dramatic images, often flooded with color, from his films. He is a visionary director, a style that doesn't sit well with everyone but his vision, at least in his prime cannot be questioned. For me, he is my favorite film maker, and I have enjoyed all of his films to varying degrees, even some of the more recent films which seem to be almost universally disliked. When I first heard of the DRACULA 3D project I was intrigued, and of course excited. My favorite director was going to take on classic horror literature. 

In this version of Bram Stoker's timeless novel, Count Dracula (Thomas Kretschmann) resides in his castle overlooking a small village which live in fear of him. Jonathan Harker has just arrived to the village to work in Count Dracula's library, leaving his beautiful wife Mina behind. He sees his old friend Lucy (Asia Argento) who is Mina's best friend and tells her that Mina will be arriving shortly. Dracula wants Mina for himself, as she bears a striking resemblance to his former lover of 400 years ago and believes Mina to be the reincarnation of her.Dracula leaves a blood stained trail through the village trying to obtain the girl for himself until vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing (Rutger Hauer) arrives to stop his reign of terror. 

While the basic plot of Argento's DRACULA is similar to what you already know of Stoker's novel, the execution and style is far from it. While traditional vampire mythology allows vampires to turn in to bats, Argento has Count Dracula turning into everything from bats, to flies, roaches, wolves, an owl, and even a giant fucking praying mantis in one of the films most insane and bloody scenes. In true Argento form, DRACULA is violent and sexy. Blood sprays across the screen, beautiful women bare their bodies, and it is a classic practice of Italian horror. The film's biggest downfall, and one gripe every viewer has (and rightfully so) is the CGI. It is bad. Really bad. Epically bad. It is cheap, poorly rendered and looks like something out of  a Windows 95 game. The sets on the other hand are actually quite decent. The cobblestone houses, medieval interiors of the castle and dark woods all lend an air of atmosphere that aid the film in being creepy.

The acting is what you'd expect out of Argento film. If you've never seen one acting takes a backseat to style on many occasions. Sound isn't recorded live so each actor is dubbed, no matter what language they're actually speaking on set. The performances are okay. I've seen worse but I've certainly seen these performers do better. DRACULA 3D isn't Suspiria or Deep Red, it isn't even Phenomena or The Stendhal Syndrome. What it is is a violent and sexy exploitative take on the classic story that manages to take a small budget and turn out a pretty cheesy and entertaining film.

The Audio & Video
IFC Midnight delivers a gorgeous looking and sounding Blu-ray of DRACULA 3D. The single disc features both 3D and standard 2D options in full 1080p HD. The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer shines with high levels of detail and a strong color palette. The black levels are deep and skin tones are natural. There is a 5.1 track and a lossless 2.0 track, both in English. The soundtrack from Claudio Simonetti sounds magnificent and is well mixed with the dialogue.

The Extras
The main feature for this disc is a behind the scenes featurette. Also included is a music video for the song "Kiss Me Dracula" which can be viewed in 3D. A pair of trailers round out the disc.

The Bottom Line
While this is far from classic Argento, and is not your grandfather's DRACULA, Argento pulls out an entertaining film with visual appeal. The shortcomings of the film don't hamper my enjoyment of it and I would recommend it if you're a fan of adaptations of the story.

DRACULA 3D is available HERE