EDITOR’S NOTE: Did you know that Visual Vengeance has a ton of movies on Tubi? It’s true. Check out this Letterboxd list and look for reviews as new movies get added. You can find this movie on Tubi.

Directed and written by Steve Sessions (Aberrations, Dead Clowns), Contagio starts with Calvin (Luc Bernier) and Iris (Isabelle Stephen) going on a camping weekend vacation and then entering a nightmare, as they soon learn that the area that they’re in has seen people going insane.

Filmed in less than a week during the beginning of March 2009, this is the kind of movie that references The Incubus (the car that Calvin and Iris steal has the same license plate as Cassavettes’ car), The Crazies and Night of the Demon (the sheriff’s name is from that film). I’m kind of surprised by the level of people not liking this movie on IMDB and Letterboxd, because it has some great effects — I mean, a man literally pulls his own head in half and everything inside messily vomits out — and is obviously made with no budget at all. Sure, Calvin and Iris are both morons — I judged him as soon as he wore that driving hat and wondered how he was able to have such an attractive partner — but what horror movie leads are all that smart anyway?

Yes, I also get that the leg wound that Iris gets would leave her unable to walk. Yes, the footage of the helicopters is obviously stock and doesn’t feel like it fits where the movie takes place. Yes, Calvin may be a complete moron until he suddenly is an expert in science and figures out that there’s a cloud that goes into people’s eyes and makes them into infected killers.

That said, I had fun. Sometimes, you can just watch something and shut your brain off, you know?