It was just a big meh. By the end, I was glad it was over.
Why would anyone make a sequel and not try to surpass or at least equal the original? As much as I didn't hate the first one, this "film" is a waste of everyone's time, cast and director included.
It seems really odd that Contracted has gotten a "sequel". The ratings on trakt and on IMDB are not exactly high (and I didn't dig it much either http://trakt.tv/comments/7163) but according to the Producer IFC basically handed them money and let them do what ever they wanted (the original writer and director probably had little to do with this movie).
Being titled " Phase II" one would expect a large scale infection following what happened to Patient 0 in the first one but this isn't the case (yet). The story follows Riley who had the pleasure of poking some worms in the first one and the investigation into the multiple deaths surrounding him. Let's just say this one isn't surpassing the first one in any way.
The investigation is boring, not done proper and conducted by a Canadian cop who doesn't even try to put on a different accent. Parallel to this Riley also tries to find the culprit known as BJ on his own (played by a Barrett look-a-like as he didn't return for the role) because of the changes to his body and the fact that he received threats from him for giving away his license plate number to the cops.
Unfortunately the outbreak is reserved for a different movie along with a conspiracy as they decided to let BJ behave stupidly for no good reason making him the worst person to spread "hate".
We learn nothing really new except that it isn't a STD as spit is already enough to transfer the disease. There is little consistency to the rules: Riley gets well over a week where as another girl he kissed barely makes it a day (his sister who drank a chunk of his blood also lives longer). They also can just infuse the disease with a needle so this sort of ruins the main aspect of the first movie.
As with the one before this, the body horror is the main enjoyment factor for this and there are a few cool scenes for that. It is however very obvious that they were heavily reliant on makeup when it wasn't a closeup.
If you watched the first and didn't hate it it doesn't hurt to see this one too. For those who are torn there isn't much to see here.
Shout by SpiderJerusalemInTheMountainsVIP 2BlockedParent2023-08-16T11:13:47Z
While not quite as strong as the first movie, this sequel did a nice job moving the story along to help setup a closing movie. Lot's of openings for possibilities, and I hope to see something come from it.