Day of the Dead 2: Contagium

Director: Ana Clavell, James Glenn Dudelson

Writer: Ana Clavell

Tagline: Every day has a beginning.

Actors: Laurie Baranyay, John Freedom Henry, Justin Ipock, Julian Thomas, Stephan Wolfert, Steve Colosi

Runtime: 1h 43m

Category: Outbreak, Zombie

Synopsis: At the Ravenside Military Installation in 1968, a deadly contagium is spreading rapidly. Infecting staff, patients, and military personal without prejudice, the virus turns living beings into flesh-starved zombies! After an explosion inside the compound, the military believed that the situation had been squelched…they thought wrong. Almost 40 years later, a clean-up crew of five from the now Ravenside Memorial Hospital, finds a thermos in a ravine not far from there. They bring it back and open it, only to find a strange looking vile residing inside. The vial opens, releasing a strange gaseous substance, of which they all inhale. Soon they start to feel weird and eventually one of the orderlies gets bitten by one of them. Everything spirals out of control from there, where the entire hospital seems to have gone crazy (no pun intended). Can they stop the contagium before the infected people get out of the hospital?

Review: I wasn’t really expecting much from this movie, considering that it was considered a sequel to the original Day of the Dead (1985) done by an independent company. I expected it to be cheesy and campy, with bad graphics and a poor script and plot. Consequently, I was wrong! It was actually a pretty good movie despite the “indie” rating. Since the movie called to be shot at a mental institution, the script could be a lot more lax than in a normal movie, considering the way some of those people must be addressed. Thus they were free to expand a bit more in their gore department, of which they did a pretty good job. The gore was nice with some neat killing scenes but some of the blood used was obviously fake. That aside, the story didn’t really follow the original at all (thank you), which is good because this story needed a different twist. I liked where they went with the story but I would have liked a bit more info on those damn vials! The end was very reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead (2004) with them escaping and attacking everyone in sight. Plus I liked how they didn’t end it on a happy note; that the story just ended, giving the viewer a feeling of hopelessness (just like at the end of Dawn of the Dead (2004)). Not bad…not bad at all.

Rating: Overall the movie was pretty good…so…18. I would have liked to see more story and more character interaction. The story was good but I think that a side-story about the vials would have done very well. Although I do understand that sometimes budgets don’t allow everything you want (trust me…this I know first hand). But like I said before, the overall story was good and the effects were not that bad. The acting wasn’t terrific but sometimes that’s a plus; especially when you’re going for grit and unfamiliarity. So there you have it…an alright sequel that wasn’t that bad. (18of25).

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