Day of the Dead 2: Contagium is a low-budget quasi-prequel to the George A. Romero film Day of the Dead. Although it is advertised as an official sequel as Taurus Entertainment Company holds the rights to the original film, no one from the original film, namely George A. Romero, had any involvement in Contagium.
The film has received dominantly negative reviews. One factor stems from the title. As the plot of the film and its depiction of zombies are at odds with those in both the original Day of the Dead and Romero's Dead series as a whole, it is believed that the film was titled as a sequel in order to profit from the release of Romero's actual Day of the Dead sequel, Land of the Dead, that had been released earlier the same year. Heavy criticisms have also been aimed at the film's acting, special effects, and script.
Plot[]
While Doctor Donwin and his patients from Romero memorial hospital are cleaning a ravine, one of the patients finds a thermos. When another patient opens the thermos uncarefully, it releases glowing orbs, which the group of patients are exposed to. Symptoms are apparent immediately, including unnatural skin shedding, black goo foaming at the mouth, dilated pupils, boils, and a unisystem of the human senses which the selected group of patients share. They soon discover they have been infected with a strange flesh eating virus, becoming a manner of zombies.
Trivia and goofs[]
- The hospital is named after George A. Romero.
- It is rumored that when George A. Romero's Land of the Dead trailer originally aired with scenes from all of his Dead films, Dudelson and Tarus threatened lawsuit stating that since they owned the rights to Day of the Dead, the films original maker could not use it.
- The film never explains Emma's unusual pregnancy.
- Fatal incidents occurred easily. One of the guards bangs the back of their head against the wall and then there is a large bleeding wound; another person bangs the back of their head against the wall and they die; a nurse gets kicked in the face, it isn't clear if she got knocked out or died; a soldier cuts his finger on a wire and gets shot in the head for it; a man who was never affected in anyway, trips over a rock, falls in the grass, dies, and stands, now a zombie.
- As an orderly switches the lights off in the mental institution's dorm rooms, the crew (with dolly) are reflected in the pane of glass in the door.
- Patty (the zombie in camouflage t-shirt) is shown with black, scabby crust all around her eyes and the ridge of her forehead. When she attacks the junkie in the pharmacy room, Patty's face is fleshy and bloody, no black crust. A few minutes later, she's back with the crusty black scabbiness.
- In the prologue, the caption says it is 1968, yet one of the soldiers is using a Beretta M92 pistol seven years before that weapon was produced.
- The film takes place in Pennsylvania, yet palm trees are visible in the first few scenes after the main credits.
- In the earlier scenes before the zombie infection breakout, the TV screen in the hospital patient lounge already has blood on it.