ILL: Final Contagium | Movie Review

From the union of Italian, Chilean and German filmmaking talents comes OLC: Final Contagium (2019), an anthology horror film that offers a satisfying view of a world succumbing to money and viruses. In a crescendo of tension and degradation both psychological and physical, this enthralling body horror offers grandiose bodily mutations, symbols of the corruption of the soul here externalized with all its monstrosity.

With the episode "Contagium", Chilean director Lucio A. Rojas, known for directing the extreme horror film Trauma, deals with the theme of experimental bacteria spread through money, paving the way for the contagion that will spread like wildfire until it reaches Italy (second and third episodes) and all other countries for a global apocalyptic vision that will instead be addressed in the concluding chapter.

For "Contagium (Day #0)", Lucio A. Rojas again enlists the collaboration of actors Felipe Rios and Ximena Del Solar, both part of the cast of Trauma. Felipe Rios plays Andrés Canessa, A man who gets hold of a dangerous experimental material, but it will be stolen from him by two charming strangers looking for rich people to rob.
In this episode, material insatiability ignites the spark of lust and violence by offering erotic sipariettas in which the sparkling performances of Ximena Del Solar and Rayloren Mata shine while disturbing that of Felipe Rios who, as in Trauma, gives a glimpse of his unpredictable and talented acting versatility.
The screenplay is by Lucio A. Rojas and Ximena Del Solar.

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Italian director Lorenzo Zanoni ("Caetophobia" segment in Taste of Phobia) is the author of "Gully (Day #86)", an episode in which theft of money will cause a physical mutation in Owen, a stingy, inert boy who spends his days idly.
Veined with sadness and melancholy, "Gully" is an ode to body horror and highlights a heavy unraveling of the human body that does not leave one indifferent thanks in part to the amazing FX by Athanasius Pernath and the performance of Tommaso Arnaldi. The slow and inexorable bodily metamorphosis also touches on the memory of Seth Brundle's painful transformation in the The fly (1986) but also that of the more recent Thanatomorphose (2012).
The photography by Daniele Trani ("Beyond the Woad," "What Have You Done, Daniel?") then, is another plus point for this "little gem."
The screenplay was written by Luca Nicolai.
In the cast: Tommaso Arnaldi, Silvia Morigi and Giuseppe Di Biase.

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Domiziano Cristopharo (House of Flesh Mannequins, Doll Syndrome) instead shows us a body destroyed by surgical retouching in "The Body (Day #104)", an episode in which a transgender woman (Chiara Pavoni) will misuse money by resorting to home cosmetic surgery to save money. The silicone infiltrations will unfortunately have devastating side effects on her body.
How "Gully", also "The Body" is a powerful segment that beautifully illustrates the decay of the human body through good use of FX (by Athanasius Pernath) that highlight, with a realistic touch, the degeneration of the skin and underlying tissues.
In "The Body" the beauty of a prococious female body fades away giving way to a physical deterioration altered by self-inflicted wounds that feed the masochistic side of the "protagonist." Vanity, obsession with perfection, and money will dazzle the transsexual, plunging him into a violent and tragic journey of no return crowned in a precious and nostalgic octogenarian final sequence.
The segment has no shortage of needles stuck in various parts of the body (lips, nipples, buttocks), blades in the breasts, and the plunging of a dagger into the throat, features that make the original "The Body", the most violent and sadistic episode.
In addition to Chiara Pavoni (Xpiation), the cast also includes Arianna Bonardi, Giorgio Agri (P.O.E. 4 - The Black Cat), Francesco Giannotti and, in a small cameo, Poison Rouge (American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice).
The screenplay is by Pasquale Scalpellino.

The Body
Known for directing the horror thriller Scars of Xavier, German director Kai E. Bogatzki writes and directs "The Cabin (Day #913)" concluding in dramatic and desperate tones the story begun by Lucio A. Rojas with the segment "Contagium“.
With "The Cabin" Kai E. Bogatzki reaches peaks of boundless desolation by providing the vision of A post-apocalyptic era where money will be the means by which the infected try to stay alive.
Gloomy and pessimistic, this segment differs from previous episodes in the suffering a father and son are forced to endure and the remedy to the pains they are forced to accept. The rawest and most poignant sequences show amputations and removal of skin and other body parts with appreciable doses of splatter that only spread more terror in the shaky lives of the two survivors.
In the cast: Max Evans and Justin Salowsky.
The music for the opening and closing credits of OLC: Final Contagium are edited by Antony Coia (Scarecrowd, Virus: Extreme Contamination, Xpiation).

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Ill-Poster

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Barbara Torretti
Barbara Torretti
Editor and moderator of the DarkVeins community. Passionate about horror cinema, I also do reviews and interviews pertaining to the film, music and art circuit.

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