Dia dos Mortos 2: O Contagio

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.

There are bad movies, worse movies and awful movies. Many of them are quite watchable, assuming that you know what you're getting into and are prepared.

Day of the Dead 2: Contagium isn't one of those.

This film is just plain lousy, as if no one involved in the production really cared about it. The special effects would make Tom Savini cringe in embarrassment. The dialog is dumb, the acting wooden. Many moments of extraneous "drama" are thrown in for no discernible reason. Possibly they wanted to form more of a plot than other zombie movies; if so then it was a failure. Long before you can get into the plot you're distracted by the guns that don't appear to be shooting, the too-obviously fake blood and the actors who can't seem to get into their parts.

Editing and direction? Nonexistent. Cuts between scenes are abrupt, without any kind of lead in whatsoever. Camera angles? Forget it. Anything at all redeemable about this movie? Nope.

Go watch one of the Romero movies. Even if you've seen it a dozen times, it'll be more interesting than this.

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 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!

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.