Ill: Final Contagium (2020) by Lucio A. Rojas, Lorenzo Zanoni, Domiziano Cristopharo and Kai E. Bogatzki

Director: Lucio A. Rojas, Lorenzo Zanoni, Domiziano Cristopharo and Kai E. Bogatzki

Year: 2020

Country: Germany/Italy/Chile

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Anthology

Plot:

Told in four parts, the story of a virus outbreak that occurs around the world taking place in Chile, Rome, Kosovo and Germany.

Review:

Contagium: After breaking into a warehouse, a stolen virus is unknowingly taken by a pair of con-artists robbing the recipient of the virus and are unwittingly contaminated. As the virus takes over and the authorities move in on the girls, they try to get away with their ill-gotten goods. This was a fantastic start to things. By giving an idea of the early life for the characters by showing the partying and fun at the club with the drunken hookups, this allows for the fun to begin as the accidental release during this night of drinking and debauchery. When it goes wrong and they're forced to run with everything including the tell-tale virus unknowingly, this one becomes quite dark immensely quickly as the rapid infection spreads through both of them incredibly quickly resulting in several great body-horror sequences. While not explaining how he came into possession of it or how the authorities knew so quickly, this is still an immensely enjoyable opener.

Gully: Responding to a new job application, a man stays home and tries to mooch through life with his girlfriend until he starts to become violently ill without any kind of respite. As he continues to deteriorate and drags her down the same path, his hubris eventually proves fatal. Overall, this was a solid continuation of the story. The early parts here with the fateful accident response and what it means for their relationships as his work struggles where he comes down with the illness while staying home are fine enough although the early stages of caring for him are slightly repetitive consisting of nothing but him coughing and wheezing without being able to keep anything down. The stupidity to not visit medical authorities when it becomes more serious than a persistent stomach virus is hard to explain, although that does provide some gruesome body-horror scenes as well as the financial decision to focus on their relationship rather than fix themselves medically.

The Body: Arriving for a new procedure, a woman undergoes a controversial surgical procedure and feels fine immediately afterward only to start realizing their body is breaking down over time. Desperate to keep going with her life in spite of this, she soon realizes it’s impossible the worst it gets. There was a lot to like here. The opening, adding physical discomfort through the odd placements of the needless for the injections alongside the unease of the overall procedure itself is a fine introduction while also giving hints that something is happening. The revelation the next morning that her body is deteriorating and breaking opening has some chilling visuals that carry on throughout that show increasing levels of disfigurement in various parts of their body. Again, the one main drawback appears here again in the lack of urgency to get to trained medical facilities when something starts going wrong, which is an understandable approach but repetitive with the previous exploits.

The Cabin: Desperate to save his infected son, a father takes him deep into the woods to keep him safe until he gets better or can find a curse. As time ticks on and he gets worse, the stress of the situation causes them to increasingly desperate acts of survival together. This is easily the weakest entry although it still has some merit to it. The main ploy here is the sense of urgency and desire to help his son as the idea of spending the first half trying to comfort him and get his son better while the quest to find an antidote when his outbreaks and meltdowns get worse resulting in the best gore effects in the segment. This does feel somewhat rushed in that, being the shortest there’s no introduction to the two and just drops us into their lives without even telling us much of anything about who they are or what they’re doing, rendering the finale not nearly as shocking as it could’ve been.

Overview: ****/5

For the most part, this is a solid and highly effective topical anthology film that gets quite a lot right even though a few small issues are found in each segment. Give it a look if you're a fan of any of the creative crew, appreciate the format or approach or looking for dark, topical genre fare while those turned off by any of this should heed caution.