Texas Frightmare Weekend 2014: Day Two

 

Saturday always seems to be the best day of this convention just because it's the longest and the craziest, with the most going on throughout the day with panels and movie screenings. I ran into my Tobin Bell line buddy Ryan again while we were waiting for the doors to open, and we talked about what our plans were for the day. I didn't even get a chance to see the other room the night before so I did a quick lap before getting in any more lines to scope things out. Ahhh! So much to see and do!

 

I stuck with my must-meet list as it stood and got in line to meet the badass T-1000, Robert Patrick! I have always loved this dude - his voice and face have always made him a stand-out in whatever role he's in. While I was close to meeting him in line, Scott Wilson came over to say hi to him and some lucky girl got to have both Scott and Robert in a picture with her. Jealous.

 

 

As a big fan of his and of Sons of Anarchy, I had to ask Robert if he was coming back for the last season of the show (he is!) and he started telling me about all the other TV stuff he's involved with. This guy is going to be all over the place - he mentioned True Blood (which I, um, have never watched... sorry, Robert), the From Dusk Till Dawn series and one other new one that I forget the name of. He sounded excited and was just such a cool guy to be around. I put my arm around his beefy manliness and got a great picture with him. Another great meeting!

 

 

 

As I'm walking around, I come to a dead stop at one of the vendor tables when I see that on the wall they have a freaking Battle Royale t-shirt. Gimme, gimme, gimme! Never seen a Battle Royale shirt before so this was a definite must have.

 

 

Then at another table I want this House on Haunted Hill (original) shirt that I see, but they don't have my size so I get this bitching Carrie one instead. 

 

In the corner of the same room is John Kassir, the talented and hilarious voice of the Cryptkeeper from Tales from the Crypt. Every once in a while, John would get on the microphone in the Cryptkeeper voice and laugh and say some of his cheesy puns - "Come on over here, we're DYING to meet you!" - which made me laugh every single time because I absolutely LOVE the Cryptkeeper.

 

 

BUT, just before I'm about to get in line to meet John, I randomly run into someone else I was looking forward to meeting. I have good online relationships with a couple of different horror authors because I've reviewed some of the books they've sent me, and one of those authors is Texas-based Brian Moreland. I loved his books Dead of Winter and Shadows in the Mist. I mentioned how I wished he had a table at the convention that year so that I could get an actual physical copy of one of his books (I've only read PDF versions thus far) and he actually runs out to his car to get me a copy of his most recent book, The Devil's Woods. Awesome! We talked more about the convention and his upcoming works. Very cool to finally meet him in person!

 

 

Also, we noticed that nearby where we were standing were these Nazi zombie life-sized statue things that look like they came straight out of one of his books, so we had to take pictures with them.

 

Cryptkeeper time! Stoked to meet John Kassir, and I tell him that practically the whole week before the convention I'd been watching Tales from the Crypt episodes to get pumped up for the event, and that makes him happy. Also mentioned how last year they had the Cryptkeeper doll at the FearNet table and how cool it was that he was there this year. He signs my picture "To Michele, My Ghoulfriend" (HAHAHAHAHA) and for his pictures with fans he has this cutout of the Cryptkeeper's head on a stick to hold up. While we're posing, John starts giggling like the Cryptkeeper in my ear and I can barely hold in my laughter to get a good picture! Seriously, love love love this guy!

 

 

 

I got lucky with my ticket purchase this year and was able to get a Premium Pass, which not only got me into all three days of the convention, but also got me the opportunity to use a line skip on two celebrities. I had to be a dick and use one of them for Scott Wilson, my beloved Hershel from The Walking Dead, and Eugene from Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Oh my goodness, what a doll. I told him that it was the saddest day on the show when he left and we talked about the possibility of the Behind the Mask sequel or prequel. We take our picture and I say thank you before trying to leave and let him get to the rest of the people in his line, but he won't let me leave without a hug! Ah, such a sweetheart.

 

 

 

 

Did I also mention how excited I was that he still had the beard and hair? He looks so good with it!

 

There were some pretty great costumes this year, including a group of Terminator and T-1000 guys to celebrate the reunion...

 

 

...and a very cool chick donning some sort of feminized version of Jigsaw's puppet.

 

 

Wow. Talk about bad angles.

 

Anyway, I had planned on meeting Linda Blair, which would have been awesome but I decided against it and just managed to get a sneaky pic before I was shooed away.

 

 

Last year there was this one booth with some amazing paintings, but I didn't get to meet the artist. Well, he was back this year with some equally great paintings covering all different kinds of horror movies, TV shows, and general horror icons. Look at this stuff! This guy is really talented, I almost felt bad for not buying any of his paintings. Couldn't bring them home, sorry!

 

 















 

I sadly only made it to two panels this year, and consequently they were back-to-back. First up was the Night of the Demons reunion panel with stars Linnea Quigley and Amelia Kinkade and director Kevin Tenney, with moderator Kristy Jett. Lots of great stories from all of these guys about the overall making of the movie, how the shot with the broken mirror was accomplished, what it was like for the actors to work with the prosthetics and makeup, and antics behind the scenes. Since I didn't meet any of these guys either, this was such a great panel to go to!

 

 

 

 

Right after this panel was one with just Scott Wilson (again moderated by Kristy Jett) where he of course talked about his career, In Cold Blood, Behind the Mask, and The Walking Dead. I just loved his attitude all weekend - he seemed to be having a really good time and genuinely enjoyed meeting and talking to his fans. I got to ask him the last question of the panel, which was about who on The Walking Dead would replace him as the sort of moral compass or conscience for the people left on the show. His response? Lil' Asskicker. So sad I'm not going to be able to see him on TWD every week now! Love this guy.

 

 

 

Soon after this panel I head toward Cenobyte Row, where they were having a Hellraiser reunion with Barbie Wilde, Nicholas Vince, and Doug Bradley. And who should already be in Doug's line but my friends from last year, Heather and Acacia! I saw Acacia for a little bit on Friday but it was so good to run into some friends after being on my own for most of the past two days. We hung out with each other while we all got the autographs we needed and caught up a little bit on the last year. Yea for convention friends, that's all I gotta say!

 

Did I mention that I met Doug Bradley, Mister Pinhead himself? Yes, I did! Hellraiser has always been a huge favorite of mine and there was no way I was passing this opportunity up. In hindsight, I guess I should have gotten autographs from all the Cenobytes but I was trying to hold onto my money at this point. No matter, I still got to tell Doug about my admiration of him and his voice in Hellraiser and I got a great picture of him signed!

 

 

I hadn't really planned on going to any of the movie screenings this year because I wasn't sure if time would allow, but Heather and Acacia talked me into meeting up with them later to catch the Spanish comedy flick, Witching and Bitching (Spanish title: "Las Brugas de Zugarramurdi," or "The Witches of Zugarramurdi").

 

 

Oh, how I loved this movie. Great comedy, great effects, great acting. The story moves fast and never lets up the momentum and it was completely unlike anything I was expecting. Witching and Bitching - keep this one on your radar, folks!

 

After the screening, I was done for the night. Twelve consecutive hours of awesome is too much even for me. But my goodness, there was still another day left! More stories and celeb meetings! Could it get any better???

 

 

 

Read my Day One recap here!



 

Texas Frightmare Weekend 2014: Day One

 

Well, guys, another totally amazing convention to add to my list of memories! This year's Texas Frightmare Weekend was arguably bigger and better than last year, with a whole new set of wonderful guests and opportunities for horror fans to have an awesome weekend celebrating with each other! Just like I did last year, I'm going to break down my experience by day, so here we go with Day One, Friday night!


I had a huge list of celebs that I wanted to meet this year, some who were making very rare convention appearances, so I wanted to get them as soon as possible. One of those was Tobin Bell, a.k.a. a guy from ONE OF MY FAVORITE HORROR MOVIES EVER. He was definitely on my list. TFW had been warning us for weeks that Tobin was probably going to be ridiculously busy all weekend (even had to pre-order an autograph ticket for him) - and they were right! I thought I had a fairly good spot in line, but still ended up waiting almost four hours before I finally met him.

Part of that had to do with the fact that his flight was delayed and that he had to leave to do a photo op at 9 p.m., and part of it had to do with the fact that Tobin was just being an awesome guy and actually taking the time to talk to everybody that came through his line. He asked me about my Fright Night t-shirt, and commented on how amazing the dedication of horror fans is when I told him I came from Missouri. I told him that I love the movie Malice (seriously, it's a good movie) and he told me about how Bill Pullman almost broke his nose in their fighting scene. It was so worth the wait to meet this incredibly kind and appreciative man. Love him even more now!

(I'd also like to give a shout-out to my Tobin Bell line buddy Ryan for being a great conversationalist and for providing me with two of his Kit Kat bars to stave off hunger while we waited. Great meeting you!)

 

 

It was about 10 p.m. by this time and the convention was almost done for the night, so I skedaddled down the hall to hook up with my next celeb. And this one was a biggie. Huge. I'll give you some hints:

 



 

Yes! It was The Godfather himself, GEORGE A. ROMERO. As you can see, there was a ton of stuff laid out on his table to pick from for him to autograph, but I had purchased a Dawn of the Dead poster just for this event. I guess I could have gushed over him a lot more but I held back and just thanked him for being there and asked him to sign right on the zombie head of the DotD poster. Man, such a freaking surreal moment to be RIGHT THERE with the man who created such iconic movies, characters, and creatures that we are still emulating to this day. Once in a lifetime opportunity and I will always treasure it!

 





 

Just across from George were two of the other people I wanted to meet that night (so I wouldn't have to carry around that poster all day Saturday). I jumped up to the table of the great David Emge, who played Flyboy in Dawn of the Dead. I was totally being serious when I told him that he gave the best zombie performance ever in that movie. I mean, that walk? Oh, it's just perfect. Very cool to actually meet him! And so I added another signature to my poster!

 

 

 

Right next to David was his co-star Scott Reiniger, a.k.a. one half of the great bromance that is Roger and Peter from Dawn of the Dead. Wonderfully nice guy, actually asked me if I wanted his signature personalized - of course, dude! My poster wouldn't officially be complete until Sunday when I added Tom Savini's autograph, but it was such a score to get all these guys in one go - a Dawn of the Dead marathon signing, if you will. I can't wait to get this bad boy framed and hung up on my wall!

 

 

I stopped with the autographs for the night and took the opportunity to do a quick walk-through of the room. I came upon the Atomic Cotton vendor table, one that I was really looking forward to visiting again. I found some great shirts there last year and became internet friends with one of the people who runs it, so we talked for a bit and she gave me free stickers and I scored this great Texas Chainsaw Massacre t-shirt.

 

 

 

All in all, a pretty fucking awesome night, but it was really just the tip of the iceberg. Still a lot more amazing experiences to come! Stay tuned for my Day 2 and Day 3 recaps!

 

 



Interview with Zombie Author Scott Kenemore

Over the past four years of blogging, I have discovered an untold amount of movies, filmmakers, books, and authors that I probably never would have before. One of my favorite discoveries has been Scott Kenemore, the expert and auteur of everything zombie. All of the eight books he has penned have been about zombies.

I'm most familiar with his three novels - what are coming to be known as the "Zombie State" books because they all take place in different states during the same zombie outbreak. Following Zombie, Ohio and Zombie, Illinois is Kenemore's latest novel, Zombie, Indiana which will be available in just a short time - May 6, 2014.

Scott was kind enough to be the subject of this blog's first official interview (!) in honor of the release of Zombie, Indiana.

First of all, a fairly obvious question: why the obsession with zombies?

Zombies have always been my favorite monster because they seem the most pragmatic. The least pretentious. Blue-collar. Dead bones and ligaments come back to life, ravenous. And... that's it. Full stop.

In a zombie story, there aren't going to be long, handwritten invitations on delicate uterine vellum to exotic, crumbling castles deep in the Carpathian Mountains. Zombies are impersonal and universal. Teeth-gnashing death is suddenly going to be everywhere, and it's going to impact everyone. That's a different sort of feel entirely. In a way, I think, one could make the case that zombies can bring us the closest to cosmic horror of any traditional monster, because, in a zombie story, it's not just about creating a fear that a monster might hurt one, particularly likable protagonist. Rather, the presence of zombies (usually) posits an entirely new reality that can be scary in all kinds of ways. (And that scariness arises apart from whether or not the protagonist is particularly endearing or charming.)

What made you choose the states that you have so far for the Zombie State books? What makes them special?

The short answer is that I've lived in them. I've lived for two or more years in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa Ohio, and Michigan. Perhaps because of this, I think I'm able to detect small regional differences that other people might overlook. (To folks in New York City - where I have also lived, by the way - the states in the Midwest can seem identical or interchangeable. My experience tells me that there are subtle - but nonetheless real - differences of character and temperament that separate Iowans from Illinoisans from Hoosiers, and so on. These differences are, at least to me, fascinating.)

What further plans do you have for the Zombie State series? Do you have an ending or bigger picture in mind?

No comment.

DAMMIT! :)

What kind of research did you do on each of the states before you started writing?

Each of my novels has some connection to my actual life. The first, Zombie, Ohio, takes place entirely in Knox County, Ohio where I attended Kenyon College for four years. (My class year at Kenyon, 2000 [I'm old], was ridiculously good for writers. John Green is the bestselling author of my generation, but we also had Dan Torday, Scott Carney, Ben Keene, and Chris O. Cook - who aren't slouches either.) With Zombie, Ohio, I was interested in using zombies to explore the tensions in the "gown and town" relationship, and how it might be impacted by a disaster like an undead outbreak.

Then in my late twenties and early thirties, I worked in community development on the south side of Chicago. Zombie, Illinois was my way of thinking about the forces that I saw impacting our poorest communities, and wondering how those forces would change with the onset of a zombie plague. Would corrupt local politicians become more corrupt, or less corrupt? Would the preachers and ministers I worked alongside in community development become more pious, or less pious? Zombie, Illinois was also an attempt at a study of neighborhoods, which is sort of a tradition in Chicago writing. (For folks who do it right, read James T. Farrell, Nelson Algren, and Mike Royko.)

My new novel, Zombie, Indiana, was inspired by two things. The first was my own boyhood in the Hoosier state. Many (perhaps most) of the finest men and women I've ever known have been from Indiana. Greg Foote, my English teacher at Brebeuf High School, to whom the book is dedicated, is just one example. Yet despite the ability of the Hoosier state to foster top-notch people of remarkable character and perspicacity, growing up in Indiana there was often this feeling of stern humorlessness that seemed to underlie everything. Have fun, but not too much fun. Be creative, but not too creative. you were given the sense that the way to succeed was to put your head down, work hard, and never question what you were told. Do whatever the basketball coach said. One of the protagonists of Zombie, Indiana is someone who succeeded in that environment; he's a former basketball star who always obeyed his coaches and bosses without question. I was interested in how someone like that would fare in a violent zombie outbreak where authority figures would suddenly be either useless or nonexistent, and some very original thinking would be called for.

The other inspiration for Zombie, Indiana was watching Mitch Daniels's response to the State of the Union address on television back in 2012. The inner psychology of such a man is a riddle for the ages. I sought to plumb its depths with Zombie, Indiana, but - alas! - in my 300+ pages, I fear I have only scratched its surface.

What movies, books, TV shows, etc. have been your biggest influences for creating your zombie stories?

My favorite zombie movie of all time is Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead. It uses zombies to create a rollicking sense of fun, while still delivering the gore and chills that horror fans demand. (And I think James Karen gives the flat-out best performance of any zombie movie ever.) I also really like George Romero's films - especially the criminally underrated Survival of the Dead - and the "Homecoming" episode of Masters of Horror.

There are too many good zombie writers working right now for me to name them all. (We're in a golden age!) But some of my favorite contemporary books and stories have come from David Liss, Joe McKinney, and Kelly Link. Terry Pratchett's zombies are pretty cool too, especially Mr. Slant.

In addition, I like a lot of writing that is not explicitly zombie-related... but still feels very zomb-ish. H.P. Lovecraft never, to my knowledge, uses the z-word. But the Louisiana swamp rituals in "The Call of Cthulhu," the animal-head mummies in "Under the Pyramids," and the burying-ground ghouls in "Pickman's Model" all feel very zomb-ish to me. (I'd put lots of Clive Barker's stuff in that category as well.)

Reviewers seem to love the humor in your books. How do you create something that is so universally understood and hilarious?

I think zombies are inherently funny because they don't see their own limitations. (It's like how a dumb guy is sort of funny on his own, but a dumb guy who thinks he's really, really smart is hilarious.) Zombies don't understand that missing limbs, illiteracy, and a top speed of two miles per hour ought to be humbling handicaps for a monster. That's the charm.

Zombie, Indiana doesn't have the same kind of nihilistic feel that most zombie stories do - rather, it is uplifting and hopeful. Do you think this is really possible if such a thing were to happen?

I don't find a lot of creative inspiration in nihilistic zombie stories. (Other writers can have that real estate.) Personally, I think almost all stories are stories of someone hoping for something good to happen, and then trying to make it happen. I think if there were ever a real zombie outbreak, I would stay pretty hopeful.

You are from Indianapolis (right?). Is Zombie, Indiana more personal than your previous books?

I identify as being from Indiana because I went to middle school and high school there.

I don't know if Zombie, Indiana is more personal than my previous books, but it's definitely unique. It covers more square footage, too. You see a lot of the state.

What do you hope readers learn or get out of the Zombie State books?

Well, obviously, I hope they enjoy themselves. But maybe I also hope that it makes readers think about how they could use a narrative device like the walking dead - or whatever fantastic element they find interesting - to tell the story of their own part of the world, in whatever creative medium they choose.

For example, sometimes I'll be talking to an aspiring writer, and they'll say something like: "I feel like I want to write a novel, but everything's already been done before. Every story's been told."

And I'll be like: "Yeah? Where did you say you were from, again? Oglesby, Illinois? Never heard of it. I have no clue what that place is like. I can't picture it on a map. I can't picture the landscape. I have no idea what the people there are like.. but you do. So tell me that story. How would Oglesby react if it was tested by zombies, or werewolves, or trolls, or unicorns. Tell me about that. That's  your story."



I want to thank Scott Kenemore so much for this interview. He really is the kind of author that I think all horror fans would love and instantly cling to because of his obvious love for the genre.

Again, his new novel Zombie, Indiana will be released on May 6, 2014. Be sure to go out and get your copy!

Movie Review: I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013)

 

I'm a fan of the original I Spit on Your Grave in the sense that I respect it and the filmmaker for what he was trying to do. I respected it enough to be more than a tad disappointed at the 2010 remake, which was fantastically brutal, but I felt it focused too much on inventive revenge rather than the victim's feelings. Though I didn't really have much interest in I Spit on Your Grave 2, I knew I would eventually watch it because my sick mind loves movies like this. And what did this little sequel hold for me but a big surprise.

Katie is an aspiring model who visits a photography studio one day to have some pictures taken. She immediately leaves after refusing to pose nude, but when one of the men follows her home, things only turn more and more horrific as Katie is kidnapped, and brutally raped and tortured by several men. They bury her alive but Katie miraculously survives, and hashes out a plan to get her bloody vengeance on all those responsible for hurting her.

Again, I'm really surprised at how much I liked this. I thought I knew exactly what I would get with a straight-to-DVD sequel to a remake of a controversial 70s exploitation flick - but I ended up being wrong in some aspects. The sequel definitely cashes in on the gritty reputation of the series, as the rape and revenge scenes are very graphic and disturbing, but somehow the feel of the story is different. I think it was the side story with the priest and the police officer that made everything a bit easier to deal with for me. It was actually wonderful to see, for once, in a rape-revenge movie that not all males are evil - that most of them would be appalled to know of the things that happened to this girl.

Jemma Dallender is absolutely wonderful in the lead role of Katie, a role that is incredibly difficult on several levels. She had to go from being a happy, normal woman, to one going through unthinkable pain and suffering, to one made almost crazy and violent by what she has been through. Her voice, especially when she is screaming, is almost child-like but at the same time so raw with emotion that it hurts to listen to her cry and scream. When she has to go into hardcore killing mode for the revenge, she excels. They also gave Dallender the same basic look that Camille Keaton made famous in the original ISPOYG - with the long, long hair parted down the middle - and I really like that as a nice homage or common thread between all the movies. The title also appears on the screen in way similar to the previous entries and that was nice to see as well.

I do question the character of the police officer in Bulgaria a little bit. He really does fuck-all to help Katie when she first escapes, or at least doesn't seem all that experienced in dealing with rape victims. He says her story is implausible and that she seems to be on drugs, which is why she doesn't want to go to the hospital. Okay, a couple things about that. Has he never heard of the international sex slave trade where women are drugged and taken to other countries? Does he not know that a lot of rape victims refuse medical attention because they don't want to be violated again? I'm not saying that he wasn't sympathetic toward what happened to Katie, it's just that his thoughts did not match his actions.

The violence is disturbing to say the least - at one point I even questioned if they had gone too far. The first rape is a long and graphic scene, and things only get worse from there. Katie is pissed on by one of her rapists after asking for water to drink, she is violently beaten about the face for no reason, and endures several shocks to the body and genitals by a cattle prod. Her kidnappers sell her to a disgusting, fat sadist to do whatever he wants to her for a while, and though you never see what he does to her beyond the cattle prod, it is probably most shocking to see her in the aftermath, lying on the dirty mattress in the fetal position with a huge amount of blood on the insides of her thighs.

This is all so messed up that I was somewhat pissed off that cattle prod asshole did not get the worst of Katie's revenge. Again, she does things to the perpetrators that are similar to what they did to her. The guy who pissed on her gets drowned in some more piss and shit, and that was probably my favorite one because for me, the pissing on her was almost worse than anything else that happened. As weird as that sounds, it just seems absolutely disgusting and the ultimate humiliation - a show of the character's complete lack of respect for others. Cattle prod asshole should have gotten what the leader of the rape pack got in the end - a brutal and uncut scene of his balls getting smashed in a vice. Now, how all this was accomplished by a girl living with nothing in the sewers of a foreign country is hard to believe at times, but if you're worried about that stuff by this point, you're watching the wrong movie.

I absolutely love revenge films and I have to say that I Spit on Your Grave 2 is surprisingly a nice entry into the genre. It is ultra-violent and difficult to watch, like these movies should be, but a wonderful lead actress carries the film well, and the shift in location and circumstances bring something new to the series. It is definitely not one for everyone, though, so watch at your own risk.

Movie Review: Contracted (2013)

This movie was making the review circuit on some of the blogs that I read, and I became more curious about it each time I saw a new review pop up. With that icky looking poster and a plot that promised some equally icky body horror fun, I thought I should give the indie movie Contracted a watch. But while the movie does deliver on the gross-out side, it has some plot and character problems that made me not completely love it.

Samantha is a young twenty-something going through a difficult period in her life. She has a strained relationship with her mother, made even worse by the fact that she had to move back in with her, and has to deal with the blase attitude of her girlfriend Nikki. Everything comes to a head when Samantha contracts what she thinks is a sexually transmitted disease from a one night stand that wrecks havoc on her body and her mind.

The introduction to the story is fantastic - the movie opens with some disturbing shots of a morgue worker having sex with a corpse, which we're lead to believe is the catalyst for Sam's STD. We then get a quick introduction to most of the main characters and get a glimpse into the many relationship problems that Sam has, then Sam meets up with BJ, the man from the opening. I like how the filmmakers never fully show BJ - his face is always off-camera or out of focus - because he's not really important to the story. Revealing him would only make him the villain of the movie and make the audience focus too much on who he is. He and Sam have sex in his car, and the title, "Contracted," pops on the screen in a quick cut, almost as if at the moment Sam gets the disease.

The movie does a great job of showing the progression of Sam's illness, as more and more nasty things happen to her body. She has horrible vaginal bleeding and a scary rash on her side, her eyes get all bloodshot, her hair falls out in clumps, etc. Probably worst of all is how maggots fall out of her crotch. MAGGOTS. That's just wrong. This progression is amplified by title cards that announce the number of days since Sam's contraction, the best one being when "Day 3" turns into "Day 3 of 3," so you know that shit's about to go down soon. The makeup work on Sam is genius, as she just starts to look worse and worse with each new thing she finds that is wrong with her. They also enhanced the look of the veins on her face and neck which was very creepy and unnatural.

However, plot and character problems abound within this insane story. First, like many before me have said, none of the characters are all that likable. Samantha is probably the least likable of them all, as she just seems like a whiny, self-centered bitch. She's obsessed with her girlfriend Nikki, who actually is incredibly sexy, even though Nikki is obviously over her and doesn't even hide the fact that she is annoyed with her any time they are in the same room together. Sam is also the object of affection for two other characters in the movie, Alice and Riley, and it's a little unbelievable how so many people could be in love with this childish chick who obviously doesn't appreciate what she has. The actress tries to play Sam as sweet and innocent sometimes, but it never comes off right and you just end up hating her all the more.

It is also a little bit unbelievable how Sam and other people deal with her disease. I know that it's not really pertinent to the story, but damn did that shit get frustrating after a while. Samantha at first ignores her symptoms thinking that she just has a hangover and her period, but when blood practically gushes out of her and cramps send her to her knees in pain, she finally goes to the doctor. This doctor is a goddamn genius, let me tell you. According to him, vaginal bleeding equals... a head cold? Riiiight. So he's obviously no help. Even after she gets continually worse, though, Sam's focus is on hiding her symptoms rather than finding out what the fuck is wrong with her because, and this is the dumbest reason ever, she doesn't want Nikki to find out that she got sick from sleeping with a man. Maggots in your va-jay-jay!!! I think I would be worrying more about that. It also got almost a little funny to me how everybody was still whining about their relationship problems and talking about how much they loved Sam, even when she looked like she does on the poster up there. Please shut up about your lesbian fantasies and make this girl seriously go to the hospital or something. Sam also used to use drugs, which is her mom's explanation for what is happening to her. Which is probably why her mom is not a doctor because that stuff is obviously not from drugs.

So while Contracted is definitely great at grossing you out and making you never want to have sex again, it loses some points for having the whole cast be unlikable and for having a ridiculously unbelievable plot at times. The actors' performances are nonetheless outstanding for what they have to do. Contracted is a great little indie flick that is impossible not to take notice of, simply because of the subject matter. It's worth a look.