Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005)

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.

I don't believe this film deserves a star because there is no point in rating a film with no plot, terrible actors, rubbish director, appalling gore, Just plain and simply shocking.There is only zombies in the last 10 minutes of the film and 4 minutes at the start. Simply AuwfulIf you ever buy this or rent it just send it back without watching it it is crapThis film contains a high amount of useless gibberish and the plot line wanders from being in an asylum to a blood research lab. Unfortunately the trailer looked good but trust me the most fun in this film you'l have will be seeing the credits at the end.GENERAL 1. The beginning of the film yields a solid start with good camera work and picture quality so you know it's not NTSC-TV so at least it doesn't look like you're watching Cribs or Pimp my Ride. But from now on the plot wanders from a bunch of guys who are mentally challenged to a handful of people who are researcher's in a asylumVERDICT 2. Don't bother looking at DVD, cassette and VHS Don't bother watching this crap unless your given it for free plus free cash handout.0.01/10

This movies IMDb rating doesn't do it any justice at all, I was honestly expecting one of those shot on hand-held digicam, straight to DVD movies that there are so many of these days but this is so much more. This film is well shot, well acted, well directed and most of all has a completely original plot twist. OK lets get the obvious question out of the way, why is it called Day Of The Dead 2? I really don't know, it doesn't have anything in common with Romero's films other than zombies and it's certainly not a sequel. Very strange. After a great start in which the story builds it then slows down a lot, the early-middle part of the movie moves at a zombie walking pace. It sadly does affect the film at this point but it's all very watchable and the acting and storyline keeps interest levels up. I'm not going to spoil the plot twist but please just stick with it, I had thought that the best of this movie was in the opening sequence but I'm so glad that I stayed the course. The last act picks up the pace again and there are some delightful treats for zombie fans, fantastic make-up and most of all convincing, old skool slow moving zombies. Why can't Hollywood remakes stick to these rules!? I really wasn't expecting this at all, I was fully ready to take this film apart but it's made with a real sense of fun and good ideas. If the middle was more entertaining then I could easily give a higher rating, what it does do though is make the end of the movie worth waiting for. It gave me a feel of the 70's Spanish/Italian zombie movies in as far as pacing and plot, but this is way better than most of them. I can only think that the lowly rating for this film is from Romero fan boys who take offence at the use of the name. I too don't feel they needed to or should've been able to use the name but please look past that and if you're a zombie fan you will enjoy this.A superb cheap thrill with no social commentary, just a sense of fun and a reason to get some great zombies on-screen. What more do you want!!??

The reason this is an "Of The Dead" movie is because Taurus (the company who made) owned the rights to the name Day Of The Dead and were allowed to use it however they wished, this was nothing to do with George Romero at all. The film is very gory, but decidedly low budget looking.Starting out in 1968, Ravenside Military Installation in Pennslyvania (according to the fairly helpful graphic but the sign above the main door is more helpful & reads Ravenside Military Hospital) in the middle of some sort of emergency from the alarms and frantic running around. We get a warning (translated from Russian, clearly a soldier who'd defected to return something the Russians had stolen) and in the chaos someone steals what had been returned. We see some of the cheapest looking CGI jeeps and helicopters I've ever encountered and we see exactly what kind of response the Military have sent, the type that results in deadly force with no questions asked. Seemingly their problem is easily solved and the zombies outside obviously went to the Romero School of Acting judging by their loping gait.Our thief hears the military policy over their radios (By the way, the order "Shoot to kill" is NEVER issued, when you open fire you only ever do it for 1 reason) and there are 2 goofs (the "dead" nurse on the ground who blinks & the sniper upstairs who needs 2 shots to kill someone) as our thief finally succumbs to the disease and is killed, losing his ill gotten booty. Flash forward (the graphic gets around dating the movie exactly by reading "Five Days Ago") and we meet a group of men, one of whom discovers the long dead thiefs booty in what is now Ravenside Memorial Hospital. Funnily enough they live in the Romero Ward and its fairly clear this is some sort of Mental Institution.We gradually start to find out who are staff and who are patients (its not immediately obvious before they enter the hospital) and get a rough idea of what kind group dynamic they have and what kind of relationships exist. The disease is unleashed again and the 1st signs start to manifest after the patients are returned to their beds and rooms. Dr Donwynn researches on the internet and the patients seemingly start to hallucinate. The following day (4 days ago) and more signs of infection start to manifest in the form of extremely low budget make-up effects (using PVA glue to simulate peeling skin) and we discover there is some sort of connection between all of the infected as they all experience the same feeling as Emma in her restraints. Their symptoms worsen (however none of them seem to question the fact their vomiting up blood & bile? I know their supposed to be mental patients but most of them seemed quite lucid before getting infected) and chaos seems to be ensuing at the hospital and getting worse rapidly.When Donwynn is asked where they got sick and Dr Heller (the guy in charge) calls it "the DeLuca ravine" its extremely clear Heller knows more than he is letting on about the past of Ravenside. Isaac (one of the patients) discovers he no longer bleeds (so he is already dead then) as Heller considers contacting the military but changes his mind and imposes a quarantine, issues weapons and authorises the use of deadly force. His final order of "aim for the head" proves he knows more than he is telling anyone else and Donwynn finds out exactly what was in the vial and what it does. It appears Donwynn has a connection with all the infected and Marshall the nurse who attacked Emma is shown to be more infected than any of those who were exposed to the vial. A guard is shot & killed and the infected male patients argue as Heller shows us how bad Marshall looks.The following day (3 days ago) and after a minor scuffle one of the patients gets hold of a gun and it is pretty weird that they are letting the obviously infected Donwynn interact with uninfected staff & patients. Marshall breaks loose and eats Heller as Emma is released & Isaac is shot & Marshall gives us the 1st scare of the movie which is awesome even if it is totally expected. Donwynns informant Jerry confirms the infected are dead and tells us about the origin of the vials and we get to see what caused the original outbreak from the start of the movie. There's the super goof of the guard losing the magazine from his pistol as he fires at Marshall and as the cure is about to be revealed the patients fall into a feeding frenzy on Jerry.The following day (2 days ago) Heller is now undead, Donwynn discovers how much Heller knew and patients Boris, Sam & Jackie appear to have physically changed after eating Jerry. The cure is seemingly destroyed by Vicky, a junkie looking for a fix and Emma has gone from just pregnant to full term in 3 days as Isaac finds his own solution to being undead. The following day (yesterday) and the news reports the dead walking and attacking the living in a very open and extremely weak non-ending. I say non-ending as there is no real conclusion, no idea of what happened to Emma and her pregnancy. I assume this was left open to further explore the franchise at a later date.