Zombie movies are by far my favorite, but this was absolutely horrid. I was starting to dig the explanation of the "virus," but it took forever to get there and then cut out before the conclusion of the movie. This is quite possibly one of the worst zombie movies I have ever seen. It may even be the worst horror movie I have ever seen (I think the remake of carnival of souls might still hold #1.) Stay as far away from this movie as you possibly can. The special effects were really cheesy. It might as well be called Night of the Comet 2. I'm not knocking Night of the Comet, it was great for its time and was supposed to have comedic elements and cheese as part of it. This was a serious attempt at a movie and an absolute failure. I am furthermore upset that the listing for this movie had George Romero's name attached to it. I scoured the credits and thank god it's not there. This film is a disgrace to the legacy that he has created for his fans. There is no reason to see this film. I watch bad movies for curiosity and I love a lot of bad horror films, but this is in an entirely different class. I feel precious minutes of my life were stolen from me. Please don't watch this film under any circumstances.
Day of the Dead 2: Contagium
2005
Action / Horror
Plot summary
In 1968, in the Ravenside Military Hospital in a military facility in Pennsylvania, the army loses control of an experiment of a lethal bacteriologic weapon that changes the DNA and transforms human beings into zombies. A group of soldiers is sent to the hospital to eliminate the infected staff and interns but private DeLuca steals a test tube with the virus and hides it inside a vacuum flask. He is transformed into a zombie and killed but the vacuum flask falls in the grass. In the present days, a group of patients in the mental institution Ravenside Memorial Hospital finds the vacuum flask and later when one of them opens the vessel, the culture tube drops on the floor of a bathroom contaminating the group and their Dr. Donwynn.
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Trash
The dead already had their day, and it was back in 1985...
First of all, I must say that I am more than baffled at how this movie could get to bear a title like "Day of the Dead 2: Contagium", as it is nothing in the likes of the George A. Romero classic "Day of the Dead". They have nothing in common, aside from having zombies in them. And in fact, then this 2005 movie is a slap in the face to the original 1985 movie.
That being said, then of course I had to watch it, because I am a zombie aficionado. I didn't even know that it existed before coming across it by sheer random luck on a visit to China back in 2005 or 2006. I have watched it twice since then; once when I purchased it, and once in 2016, as I just had to check if it was as bad as I initially remembered it to be... And it is!
The story in "Day of the Dead 2: Contagium" takes place at Ravenside military hospital, where a lethal bacteriologic weapon gets out of control and turns people into zombies. Half a Century later, people at the facility finds a closed vacuum flask which holds a mysterious container inside. Once opened, the residents become exposed to a DNA altering substance.
Right, well the story was mildly adequate, albeit it wasn't anything impressive in any sense. It had the right intentions, but just lacked conviction and execution. And directors Ana Clavell and James Glenn Dudelson were just fighting an uphill battle here.
The effects in the movie just scream low budget to the core. And most of the times the effects just came off as being fake and laughable. And unfortunately so was the zombie make-up. It just didn't really work out all that well. And a zombie movie suffers a terrible blow when the effects are not in place.
Another thing that made the movie come off more ridiculous than it had to was the flying specks of light when the container was opened. What was up with that? It just brought the movie down to a very laughable level. As did the thing with the collective mind and shared physical trait. Why would a group of people see and feel the same things just because they were exposed to a chemical? That would mean that all zombies would essentially see all the same things. No, it was just so illogical.
The acting in the movie was as to be expected, adequate enough for what it was at this level of movie-making.
"Day of the Dead 2: Contagium" is by no means a noteworthy addition to the zombie genre. And if you do enjoy zombie movies, then you should stay well clear of this movie, as it do no justice at all to the 1985 Romero "Day of the Dead" movie, nor does it bring anything memorable to the genre. And I just can't fathom how this movie got to bear the "Day of the Dead" title.
And STAY dead, damned!
In case you're ever in the mood to see literally thousands of people getting shot in the head in approximately only ten minutes of playtime, you should definitely watch "Day of the Dead 2"... Why am I even using that title, it should be boycotted. Anyway, during some sort of fatal virus outbreak, soldiers go a little nuts and gun down everyone within the domain of a psychiatric institution, whether zombified already or not. It's a pretty exhilarating intro, with blood splattering over every wall and innocent bystanders getting their brains blown out just for fun apparently. Inevitably, the whole thing goes downhill really fast after that, mainly because people start opening their mouths to speak the world's most incompetently written dialogs. There naturally isn't any link with George A. Romero's excellent third entry in his classic zombie series, as "Contagion" looks more like the questionable horror fan-boy achievement of a group of dumb film students. After the violent intro, the events are rewinded by four days and we're welcomed in a mental institution with the absolute oddest collection of lunatic teenagers ever. Some of the crazy kids find a thermos containing a bizarre virus (oh yeah, just like that...) and it turns them into skin-peeling, blood-vomiting, bullet-dodging and eventually undead morons. They're also telepathically linked to each other for some reason, which is new in the zombie department but especially stupid. "Contagion" is a bunch of straight-to-video trash, but it's endurable thanks to the huge amounts of cheap gore and unintentionally hilarious plot twists. The acting is absolutely horrible, but that was to be expected, I guess. Most of the players already behave like lifeless imbeciles long before they're even contaminated. For gorehounds and explorers of low-budget cult smut exclusively. If you got any bit of good taste left, you should probably avoid this like you would avoid syphilis.