Contracted: Phase II

After the events in the previous film, Riley (Matt Mercer) has begun showing symptoms of the same illness that caused Samantha (Najarra Townsend) to turn into a zombie. Panicking, Riley decides that he needs to track down the person who first infected Samantha, BJ (Morgan Peter Brown), in the hopes of gaining a cure. Besides showing the same symptoms as Samantha, most of the people Riley loved the most were infected by his virus, especially his grandmother, Margie, Harper and finally his pregnant sister, Brenda (at the credits scene).

BJ has his own agenda, he is more than willing to continue to spread the disease to other victims. He is immune to the virus and continues to spread it to other victims like Samantha and four other missing women whom he randomly selected in the street. After having sexual intercourse with them, he injects the pathogen virus into their bodies before sending them home. Eventually, he sends threat tapes to the special agent to orchestrate the end of the world with a zombie apocalypse.

As Riley decides to cooperate with Detective Crystal Young (Marianna Palka), he succumbs to the disease and is killed by BJ, who was at the hospital where Harper died of a seizure while trying to detonate a bomb to create a massive apocalypse by releasing other victims hospitalized there. As Riley is fully transformed into a zombie, he attacks BJ before Detective Young shoots him in the head.

In the mid-credits scene, BJ is shown to be alive, but hospitalized, while a doctor with an Abaddon tattoo tells BJ, "Very soon, my friend, very soon".

• Matt Mercer as Riley McCormick
• Marianna Palka as Detective Crystal Young
• Morgan Peter Brown as BJ
• Anna Lore as Harper
• Laurel Vail as Brenda
• Peter Cilella as James
• John Ennis as Special Agent Dalton
• Najarra Townsend as Samantha Williams
• Richard Riehle as Deuge Gelman
• Suzanne Voss as Margie
• Charley Koontz as Zain
• Alice Macdonald as Alice Patrick (archive footage)
• Ruben Pla as Doctor
• Caroline Williams as Sam's Mom (archive footage)
• Joanna Sotomura as Debbie

In April 2014, director Eric England had completed a draft of the script, titled Contracted: Phase II.[2] In December 2014, the sequel was officially announced following the first film's success on VOD. England was not able to return due to his commitments to Get the Girl. Josh Forbes was brought in to direct the film, working from a new script by Craig Walendziak. [3]

After debuting at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in July 2015, the film was released in select theaters and on demand on September 4, 2015 by IFC Midnight.[4]

Critical reception for Phase II has been negative and the film holds a rating of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 13 reviews.[5] Metacritic reports a score of 35 out of 100 based on 7 critic reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[6]

Variety criticized the film, stating "Despite a couple of brief closing-credit epilogues suggesting future narrative directions, "Contracted: Phase II" feels too hurriedly conceived to expand on the original's premise in more than perfunctory fashion."[7] Rogerebert.com panned Phase II and compared it unfavorably to its predecessor, writing that "Pointless body horror sequel "Contracted: Phase II" doesn't develop its predecessor's concepts so much as it resolves all of the questions you never needed answered."[8] In contrast The Hollywood Reporter and The New York Times were more positive,[9] and the Times praised Forbe's direction and visual effects.[10]

• Contracted: Phase II at IMDb