Contracted (2013)

Contracted (2013)
Directed by Eric England
Written by Eric England

Image from http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTQwMjQyOTUwN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDQ3MzE2MDE@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg

STDs (or STIs as they're called nowadays) are pretty scary. Some things you can live with, some will kill you, and apparently some will do much worse. That's kind of the premise for Contracted.

From reviews and people I've spoken with, Contracted is either a movie you like or don't. Not really any gray area. I'm part of the do-not-like party. It's one of those movies that you can't even get attached to the protagonist because they do everything wrong. I want to see a horror movie where the character is taking steps towards self preservation, and she has to use intelligence to get out of a situation. I don't want to see a stupid girl get in trouble because of something she chose to do herself.

Samantha and Nikki are taking some time apart. Nikki is so over this, but Sam hopes it's just a short break. In the mean time Sam ends up at her friend Alice's house for a party. After a few drinks she can't even properly decipher which cup is hers and is handed one by an uninvited guest. Before she knows it, she's have straight unprotected sex in his car. In the morning she wakes up in her bed with a fuzzy memory and what she thinks is a bad hangover. At least in her room she's surrounded by beautiful flowers she's growing for a competition. Beyond her door is a mother who isn't so much concerned as she is leery that her daughter is using again.
At work Sam has trouble concentrating. She can't understand customers' orders, and is overwhelmed by a ringing white noise. Seeking solace in the ladies' room, things seems to calm down in her head, but she has a huge amount of blood escape from her lady bits.
Her doctor barely examines her and thinks she may have an STD. Sam is devastated. In her mind she cheated on her girlfriend with a MAN. If only she didn't take a drink from a stranger. If only she didn't have unprotected sex in someone else's car. If only she' insist that her doctor examine her thoroughly instead of looking only at her hips and waist with her panties still on and calling it a day.
Also during that day Sam insists that Nikki and her meet up. While eating out a dude approaches Sam to hit on her. Nikki tells him he doesn't have the right equipment, and he's confused, seeing as Sam did have sex with a guy just a while before. Luckily Nikki shoos him away before she finds out about it.
Later on things get worse. Sam's hair is falling out, Sam's teeth are falling out, Sam's eye is messed up, and maggots are falling from her vagina. And her flowers are dying. So what does she do? Fight with her mom and go to work.
Her boss has insisted she work for a bit before heading to the doctor (not emergency room), but she's cut off when a customer finds bits of her in the food she's prepared.
Once again at the doctor, he doesn't seem too concerned. Tells her he's running tests and she should keep herself isolated for the time being. During all this, Alice has been contacted by the police about one of the guests at her party. He's a wanted man. Has Sam seen this guy? Oh she's more than seem him. He's the one who gave this present to her. But Sam is reluctant still to divulge, because what if Nikki finds out? Alice calls Nikki anyway to tell her and hopefully convince Sam to go to the police. Unfortunately that's not what goes down.
Sam turns from lover to stalker as she shows up at Nikki's, pounding on her door. Can't you tell she's over you? And she's extra pissed that you slept with a man. Sam can't take the criticism and rejection though. If she can't have Nikki no one will. She forces open Nikki's door, throwing Nikki to the ground. While she's dazed, Sam takes the opportunity to kill her. She then decides to stop in at Alice's since she's the one that told Nikki.
When Sam arrives, Alice soon can tell something is wrong. She tries fighting Sam off, but once again Sam kills a friend. And of course the next logical step after killing is to call up that one customer from your work that's been hitting on you, and inviting him over.
So he shows up, and in spite of the fact that clumps of her hair are missing, she's got the teeth of a Mountain Dew addict, one eye is blank, and her lip is scabbed over, this guy decided that he's down to bone. Ooo and she feels so good, right? Wrong. After a few pumps he realizes Sam is crazy bleeding all over his junk, and when he pulls out maggots fall to the floor. Gross! Guy freaks out (as he should have from the start) and rushes to the bathroom to clean off. Unfortunately he finds Alice's body in the bath tub. What to do?!
Sam leaves Alice's and gives her mom a ring. Her mom all of a sudden is concerned about her and her whereabouts. Sam, however, passes out at the wheel. When she comes to, the man has arrived, as well as her mom, and has her car surrounded. She gimply swats at the armed officers, while her mom calls to her. Sam rushes her mother, and finally we see that Zombieism is an STD. And guy from the party (BJ) is spreading it.

Image from http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i461/gokbiloz/ARNT4/7_zps6a943829.jpg~original

Above is a picture of Sam, halfway through her demise. Don't you want to get with that, just like random guy at the end of the movie? NO! Not to say she's ugly, but simply because any good samaritan would think this looks like a person in distress. She needs medical help. But no. Instead Nikki is too caught up in their breakup and Sam's 'confused' sexuality, Alice is too upset that Sam didn't turn herself into the police, guy from restaurant is too horny, mom thinks she's just a crack head, and Samantha is just dumb. Like I said earlier, can't even feel bad for them. Stupid people suffer avoidable consequences.
Additionally, if your employee came to work looking like that, wouldn't you want her to leave immediately and seek medical aid? Gosh people.

Image from http://i.imgur.com/l0Lxien.png

This movie spans 3 days too, which makes it worse. This pic above is Samantha before things go way south. So within a matter of days she goes from looking like that to this:

Image from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EusPCzQlJmes5m_qQdUsFcYHxgzqBJyj7yEkIK-0-Oz8UpJ47dQschbET7LGMNmA-P2hWBwiq1SOICXlmOMEFNZPfBdfp2-wC22uuZOrk4Yuli0uURXDc2r9JLlwnFtPwlj2buc8snGO/s1600/contracted-01.jpg

No one, not even herself, was particularly concerned about this immediate transformation. Whatevs.
The one good thing I have to say about it is it's an interesting opinion of how people become zombies.

Speckles the Tarbosaurus

Speckles the Tarbosaurus (2012)
Directed by Han Sang-Ho

Five/five stars! This movie is great! Really great!

Speckles and his family

Speckles, a young Tarbosaurus (very similar species to the t-rex) is the youngest in his family. Only 1 year old, Speckles is dwarfed by his older twin sisters, 10 year old brother, and mother. His mother and siblings usually hunt without him, but one day Speckles decides he's going to join in on the action and no one can stop him. Unfortunately someone else has the same idea. One Eye, a Tyrannosaurus rex, has been watching the Tarbosaurus from a distance for a while, but sees an opportunity to get close in this hunt.

Big brother, Quicks, is about to start chasing their prey, but Speckles rushes out before him. Speckles runs towards some large herbavores, but instead of running away they head straight back towards him! Something has scared the herd back in the direction of Speckles' family!

The stampede threatens to squash tiny Speckles but Quicks runs in just in time to save him, sacrificing himself. Meanwhile his sisters are trapped between the stampede and the edge of a cliff. Mom rushes through the stampede to get to her girls, but is knocked down.

When she gets up it's too late. The twins have fallen over the edge, like so many other dinosaurs in the stampede. Mom cries in sorrow as the stampede comes to and end, and the catalyst reveals itself. One Eye, the one-eyed t-rex is who started the stampede. And now he aims to take down Mom.

Tiny helpless Speckles can only watch horrified at One Eye pushes his mother over the edge too. One Eye roars in victory, now the dominant hunter of the area. Speckles seeks refuge in the forest, away from larger animals, hoping only to somehow survive on his own. Years go by and Speckles runs into One Eye again. Watching from the sidelines, Speckles sees One Eye take down a therizinosaurus, maybe the same kind of animal that took his eye to begin with.

While eating, One Eye is approached by a smaller Tarbosaurus about the same age and size as Speckles. While One Eye is chasing her away, Speckles using the opportunity to steal some of One Eye's lunch. Safely away from One Eye, Speckles eats and is joined by the other Tarbosaurus. Good thing she got away. From then on the female Tarbosaurus, Blue Eyes, and Speckles are inseparable. They grow up together and become a hunting team.

When they're ten the two have another encounter with One Eye. While waiting to ambush their prey, One Eye appears at the sink hole the two hunt at. One Eye knocks Blue Eyes down on her leg then goes in for the kill. Before he has the change to finish her off, Speckles clamps down on his leg.

From the corner of his eye Speckles sees Blue Eyes get up and hobble away. However now Speckles has to figure out a way to lose One Eye. He decides to draw him into the sink hole. It seems to work, and the Tarbosaurs regroup. Unfortunately somehow One Eye has gotten out of the muck. Exhausted, he roars at the Tarbosaurs. He probably would have tried again to finish them off but he's tired from dragging his tons and tons of weight our of the mud. Speckles and Blue Eyes leave.

The two go far away and eventually get a spot of luck. They follow a herd of dinosaurs to a hot spring. The relaxation and warm water heals Blue Eyes.

Ten years later the two are still together. In face they're waiting for their eggs to hatch. In the mean time the two have found a nest.

Speckles (left) and Blue Eyes (right)

One day while eating in their nest overlooking their new home, the rocks from the hill they live on begin to fall. The two look up to see a boulder coming at them! Speckles pushes Blue Eyes out of the way and the boulder forces him over a cliff.

One Eye pushed that boulder down the hill and now he's after Blue Eyes! She give it her best shot, but One Eye takes her down. She falls, on the same side One Eye had pushed her all those years ago. She seems to submit to him. One Eye is possibly trying to steal Blue Eyes from Speckles, not kill her, so he can mate with her, and so be it that he has to use force.

Before he can kill her, or mate with her (whichever he was trying to do), Speckles appears! He had fallen off the cliff and into the pool below. The giants fight, and Speckles wins! One Eye leaves defeated, and the couple has the chance to get Speckle's old nest back.

Their eggs hatch and they have three children. One of them, Jr., looks just like Speckles except for his mother's eyes. Things go well for a while, when a volcano explodes. The family flees. The world is collapsing around them and a rock lands on one of the babies. Blue Eyes and Speckles stop to try to push the boulder off, but Speckles seeing it's useless snatched up his other child. Pushing Jr. out of the way of another rock Blue Eyes is hit, in the same leg! Luckily the remaining four make it to the tail end of a herd, but there doesn't seem to be any rest in sight. The herbivores are on the move to try to find a new, safe forest, and the carnivores have to follow their food.

Unfortunately the leg wound is too much for Blue Eyes. She falls to the ground and raptors begin to attack. Speckles fights them off as long as he can, but for the sake of his children has to leave her body behind.

Weeks pass and eventually the herd sees green. There is one more hurdle to cross before they're at their new home--a long, thin, serpentine land bridge. The herd presses on.

It seems like salvation is near when One Eye strikes again! He drives the herd back, creating another stampede. Speckles is stuck on one side, his children on the other, riding the edge of the ocean! The stampede passes and the three of them are alive. That soon changes when One Eye head butts one of the babies over the edge. Only Speckles and Jr. are left.

In their battle Jr. is flicked over the edge by One Eye's tail. Speckles does the same to One Eye, sending the beast into the ocean. Both have survived though, and One Eye is heading for Jr.! Speckles dives off the cliff, determine not to let One Eye take his son.

They have an epic underwater battle. All the commotion attracts some tylosauruses, giant underwater carnivores that make t-rexes seem small. It seems like One Eye and Speckles will kill each other when a tylosaurus snatches One Eye up. The villian is brought to the depths of the ocean as a snack, and Speckles catches up with his son.

Exhausted and fading fasts Speckles sees that the battle has drawn them far from shore. He swims as hard and far as he can until he blacks out.

When he awakens he's on the beach, his son next to him, just fine. He gets up and the two continue on to their new green paradise.

Young Speckles

This is so much more than I expected! Actually I didn't know what to expect, but this is far better than anything I'd have guessed. The animation is excellent. The sound design is really interesting. The Tarbosaurus are really vocal so you get to listen to their cool voices a lot.

As far as characters that speak, none of them are speaking anything but roars. There is but a single internal narration from Speckles. It's really interesting how there's not a lot of character development but there is at the same time. Speckles grows and has simple motivations, like protecting his family, but some of the ways he does things that get complex or simple in a time of great panic play a lot to how Speckles has grown. For example when he was ten with Blue Eyes he was cunning and somewhat pompous to try to take One Eye down by using the sink hole, but as an adult seeing his kids' trapped on that ledge he tried to rush through a stampede only to get knocked out. Cool stuff.

Great in every way. And you learn too!

So from what I've read Tarbosaurus are very closing related to Tyrannosaurus rex, thus it's not far fetched to think a t-rex that sees a Tarbosaurus might think they can mate. They look really similar too. The Tarbosaurus' head is a lot lighter, and many Tarbosaurus bones are hollow. Bird like, or what? Anyway this is a South Korean film about a pretty much exclusively Asian dinoaur. T-rex are from North America and Tarbosaurus are from Asia.

This film has a horrible rating on IMDB, but no joke it's amazing! I hope Han Sang-Ho gets a chance to do another dinosaur movie!

On a pretty funny note, the credits list the cast members all as just the kinds of dinosaurs that appeared in the film XD

I'm sorry but I can't find Speckles' voice actors. I know IMDB has a few names listed, but I'm not 100% sure I always trust their info. They list Speckles' name are Spotty for goodness sakes, so how do know they're telling the trust about anything else?

Anyway, like many people from my generation, growing up watching Jurassic Park made us want to be paleontologists. Dinosaurs are the coolest! If you like dinosaurs, or if you like dinosaur movies, or if you like awesome scores set to animal battles watch Speckles.

All images in this entry are from the movie's facebook page: www.facebook.com/Tarbosaurus3Dfilm