Zombie Film Review:

Day of the Dead 2: Contagium

Director: James Dudelson and Ana Clavell

Year: 2004

Tagline: Every Day has a Beginning

Review: Whoooooah Horsey… I have only heard bad things about this film and so approached it with a little trepidation and although this is quite poor, I believed it had mainly got slated for the title and the fact it's named after the classic. Don't get me wrong, there are more abysmal parts to this film than good bits, and it does suck. The soldiers in this film are less plausible than those in the A-Team, there are no gun flashes, but you know this is forgiveable… Then the Alien lights, talking mutants, unconvincing conspiracy theorist and incredibly convoluted plot are all things that let this film down. There's some good zombie-based chaotic action at the start and the end, but it just the hour in the middle that is bad!

Zombie Quality: **

This is inconsistency personified, the evil Doctor character in this film, is one of the best zombie make-up jobs you can imagine and yet other zombies look like someone has scribbled on their chins with a red marker pen.

Zombie Behaviour: *

Although there are some good traditional flesh munchers here, there are also talking mutants, intelligent super-zombies, people fighting their infections for the sake of their own morality, etc, etc, etc. This film needed more blood and less emoting to successfully fit into the genre.

Zombie Threat: *****

How they got away with the name of the film is anyones guess, but world domination is certainly on the bill, once they've eaten everyone...

Gore Content: **

Not too bad, lots of claret, biting and few more unpleasant bits, but the overall effect is a bit pants!

Overall Quality: *

To sum up this film, there are good bits (like Dr Hellers Make up) and bad bits (the rest of the film)… Although I approach every zombie film with an open mind, I was disappointed with this one, not for a lack of imagination, but it came across as a cross between the A-Team, The X-Files and a college horror film. Interesting ideas, done badly…

Special Award:

Intelligent Zombies that look most like latexed up extras from Deep Space Nine: The Carriers.