Day of the Dead 2: Contagium

I heard this movie was on sale in a DVD store in another town an hour and half away from my place of residence. I was excited my friends. I drove said one hour and a half to find the DVD was on sale for 50 bucks Australian. I was a little disconcerted - but settled on the notion this movie must be some kind of gem at that price tag. I returned home and slipped it into my player with an eagerness only compared to the 13th birthday that i received optimus prime. What happened next was 99 minutes of absolute rubbish. I sat there scratching my head thinking - wha? Acting? gross. Directing? laughable. Storyline?.Whats with the stupid shiny little flower things popping out of the canister? sheesh. A complete and utter raping of Romero philosophy and ideas. Burn it, burn it, burn it.

I'm a huge Romero fan..........and I loved all of HIS Dead movies. If you see the behind the scenes on Day of the Dead 2: Contagium, Ms. Clavell acts as if her movie is the first greatest zombie movie ever made, and that she is the only one who thought up of the idea of making a great zombie movie ever!! Did she ever hear of GOERGE ROMERO---and HIS.......NIGHT, DAWN, DAY, AND LAND OF THE DEAD MOVIES?? Honey, wake up and smell the dead flesh!! This movie is a must see, she says!! The acting, edit, and direction sucked. Thank God George Romero had nothing to do with this trash. Chalk this one up with Children of the Dead folks!! It's just as good! My advice, if you see this DVD in a store, take the only 1 copy of this movie, and chuck it under the shelf!! They'll find it years from now when the store closes and moves all it's furniture out of the building! This movie not only ripped George off, but it sucked!! I'm burning my copy right now. I give it a big ZERO!!

Now, I know I'm gonna take a lot of flack for liking this movie, but oh well. I thought it was funny. I love being able to watch first a movie that scares the living crap out of me and then one i can laugh my butt off to. Yeah, the acting sucked, my 10 year old can do better make-up effects with play-doh, and the plot line was so holey that i swear it belonged in church, but if we cant laugh at a cheesy movie, then why does Rob Schneider and Adam Sandler continue to make movies. Of course, if you are too anal to enjoy watching cheesy movies from time to time, stay outta the horror section of the video store, cause for every 1 great horror movie, there are like 50 cheesy ones.

Right off the bat I have to say that "Day of the Dead 2: Contagium" has got to be one of the worst movies I've stupidly sat through in years (though my thumb strayed to the speed-scan button a few times during interminable stretches of padding). I have a feeling this thing was made with some other title in mind like, for instance, plain old "Contagium", but the filmmakers were saddled with the tag-on "Day of the Dead 2" by crass marketing hacks. I'll give the makers of this drek the benefit of the doubt. But there is no doubt that they should never, ever make a movie again. As noted by other posters, "DOTD2:C" cherry-picks bits and bobs from other genre offerings and turns them into an emetic pile of poo. The acting ranges from awful to competent, but the writing and direction are heinous. That it was a labor that took years to realize boggles the mind. Talk about "why bother?" A must avoid on every level.

On a personal note: I made the double mistake of watching it right after George A. Romero's "Land of the Dead", which no doubt made "Contagium" even more toxic a shock to my system. It was like following a beautifully cooked piece of filet mignon with a dessert of dog vomit.

I am a zombie aficionado. Unfortunately, most zombie films stink. This is pure and simple fact. So now I've watched Contagium (I refuse to honor it with a Day of the Dead sub title, since it doesn't deserve it and is in no way connected with George Romero) and The Dead Next Door in the same week. Well, thats about three hours of my life wasted. This was simply a crappy, bad film. While it had better production values than say, any Italian Giallo Zombie film of the 80's and left crap by J.P. Bookwalter and Todd Sheets in the dust, it was still garbage. The writers didn't know if they wanted to make a Romero type Zombie film or a Return of the Living Dead Zombie film, so the zombies bounce back and forth between the two. The lame opening tries to tie this craporama in with the Romero films, but don't buy the hype. Every Day Has a Beginning is simply a rip off of "Every Saga Has a Beginning" from Star Wars and tries desperately to sucker the viewer into believing this has something to do with the Romero Films, the five opening minutes of any of Georges epics are way better than this movie. While there are a few nice gore scenes, there is no logic or real continuity in the story itself, which kills the whole movie. Watch this crummy waste of time if you must, but don't be surprised when the credits roll and you scream "WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF? You've been warned!