Day of the Dead 2: Contagium DVD Review:

“Everyday has a beginning,” reads the tagline of this ridiculous – dare we call it – ‘entry’ into the Dead series.

From the film’s opening zombie err... attack, it appears that scripter and co-director Ana Clavell has her own ideas of the walking undead’s true origins. With an ideological plot strand more suited back in the fifties, it was the eeeevil Russians that concocted the virus (yes, there’s a virus) capable of turning the population into zombies… and then, the film gets worse.

Track forward to present day and a posse of lovable mental patients stumble across this lost virus and so begins their e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l transformation. So slow is the great leap from diminutive minded patient to semi brain-dead zombie, we don’t actual see much zombie action throughout the majority of the picture – that treat is saved till last.

Comparatively the qualities of this film are a given: it has nothing to offer to Mr Romero’s delightfully gruesome quadriolgy. Instead of complimenting – check out the name of said mental hospital – it merely confuses. More worryingly are the performances in this picture. Dawn of the Dead may not have chalked up any thesping gongs, but with Clavell’s effort you’ve got a cast struggling to stretch a performance portraying the walking undead. Now that’s worrying.

Played, as a prequel cum sequel of sorts Contagium is a variable mess. With the films ridiculous climax we see the infestation let loose on the streets of America. Without a smart allegory in sight or a credible flesh chomper on the screen, the film truly hits its stride when coaxing out a bundle of unintentional laughs – for that alone it deserves an extra star.

A bad film, but a great entry into the flowering zombie/comedy genre - Shaun of the Dead anyone?

Extras:

None



Shaun Davis