Contagium (you know, Day of the Dead 2)

DISCLAIMER!! A lot of people hated this film. I wasn’t too thrilled the first time I watched it either. There is really only one way to properly enjoy it, and that is to ignore the fact that it is called Day of the Dead 2. It has nothing to do with the original film and they named it this because the production company had the rights to the name and knew it would help them sell DVDs, and we all fell for it. However, if you can get past this (and I know some of us can’t), there really is a film that bears a watching. In all seriousness, the original Day of the Dead is my favorite film of Romero’s and if I can get over it, so can you. Think of this film as simply Contagium. I watched this film with Rachel (comments in red) because she has never seen the original.

QUICK STATS

SUB-SUB-GENRE: Anti-Sequel

BEST ZOMBIE: Dr. Heller Zombie
QUOTES: “Niet, niet, niet, niet, niet, niet, niet, niet.” - Boris

INFLUENCES/REFERENCES: uh…. Day of the Dead? And One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Prince of Darkness

IS IT SCARY? Almost

FOR FANS OF: Undead & Fulci (not just the movie Zombi, real Fulci)

PAIRED COCKTAIL: Since they’re in a mental hospital, how about a Ward Eight? 2oz bourbon, dash grenadine over ice in a Collins glass, fill with sour mix, shake, garnish with orange slice and cherry.

REVIEW

Have we packed away all of our fanboy issues now? Contagium opens back in 1968 (the year Night of the Living Dead was released) with an action packed bang as the U.S. Army raids a hospital where a zombie outbreak is taking place. The filmmakers give you a big dose of violence here because it will be at least an hour before we get back to this level of gore. But that’s not a bad thing because after this scene we are brought into the present and introduced to our main characters, four mental patients and their doctor tending to the grounds of that same hospital. These actors work really well together as a group, no one actor tries to take the lead or steal the show. They were all well cast, none of them look like a ‘star,’ and they’re all believable as committed crazy folk. It’s easier to connect with ‘real’ looking actors than stars. I thought the acting was a little goofy, but these characters are goofy themselves. Their performances combined with the good character writing help you forget the artifice and enjoy these scenes. Which is really fortunate because we never stray very far from these characters, but their group antics keep me very entertained until we get back to the horrific scenes.

I also thought Laurie Baranyay as the female lead Emma was very convincing. Her performance might not work for everyone, but I’ve known a few cutters and she specifically reminded me of them and that added a lot of creditability to her role. Mike Dalager also was excellent and the sexually threatening orderly Derber, reminding me of Buck, the coma patient raping sleaze-ball from Kill Bill vol. 1. Lovecraft fans will recognize him from the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society's version of The Call of Cthulhu.

You tend to see a lot of handheld camera work in independent genre films, and most of it is shitty. And while there is quite a bit of handheld work in Contagium, Director of Photography James LeGoy uses it really sparingly and to great effect. You never feel jarred by the camera, but at the same time he uses quick moving shots that maintain the illusion created by the special effects. Even when the camera is mounted it doesn’t remain still. There was a specific pan I like where Derber is going from cell window to cell window turning off the lights and we get to pause on each of the female patients before the lights are killed, and after the lights go out in their cell you can still see their pale faces in the windows, although you can completely see the camera and crew in the reflections.

What I loved most about this film is the high level of gore. The opening sequence especially is filled with extra bloody headshots and very meaty flesh eating. I enjoyed how the humans had dark crimson blood while the zombies had a brown, coagulated blood, not every film pays that much attention to the details. I’m awarding this film my Super-cheap-yet-effective merit badge for the skin peeling effect that looked like thinly spread Elmer’s Glue yet was revolting to watch them peel off. I also loved the thick black tar that the zombies cough up during dinner. I mean this film really grossed me out! One of my biggest qualms with detailed zombie make-up and masks is that it makes the actors head look bigger. It’s only natural since appliances are being put on top of the skin. However a rotting corpse shouldn’t look like it’s getting bigger as it rots away. That’s what sold me the most on the make up effects in Contagium, the fact that as the zombies rotted; they got slightly gaunter (except where the zombie was intentionally made bigger).

One of the big strengths of this film is how it plays with your preconceived zombie notions. From all the other movies you’ve seen, you know what happens when someone gets infected. They get sick, they die, and they come back as mindless biters. You keep expecting this movie to follow that formula and a lot of suspense is created by how they stay true to the rules, or break them.

Contagium also features very sharp production design. If you’re unfamiliar with this term, it’s the look of a film. Not the camera work or the editing, but they way the sets, signs, props, et cetera look and the effect that creates. Every single set had in-depth colors and layering that lets each set be believable and makes every shot more appealing to look at. The hospital is obviously going to be a very sterile set, but they would add in these odd touches on some sets like a window ledge you’d see in your grandma’s kitchen. It created an odd mix of hospital and homey, and anyone who’s spent any time housed in any type of clinic (rehab!) will attest that these places try that type of stuff and it just makes you more uncomfortable.

There is some silly stuff in this movie though. The object that everyone gets infected from looks like a tampon from space or a douche nozzle. Also, when we’re in present time, they use an ‘X days ago’ title card that they really don’t need. One time when they use the card it does mark a break between days, but towards the end they’re using it to bridge a five-minute story gap. It ended up feeling a lot like the troubadour narrator from Dead & Breakfast, something they started with and felt like they had to commit to for the duration of the film. There’s also a monster pregnancy that leads nowhere. Anton Chekhov said that if you introduce a gun in the first act, it had better go off by the third, and that’s just as true for chicks knocked up with zombie babies. There are also a couple of half-assed attempts to tie their movie into the original that don’t work at all.

Contagium is a great film that only hurts itself by trying to attach itself to another film’s legacy. If you’re looking for gory action and original characters, you could do a lot worse. That being said, the fact that the makers of this film have attached themselves to the upcoming DOTD remake (probably due to their ownership of the rights) scares me a little inside. If they were willing to fuck up a good movie like Contagium for the sake of shilling DVDs, how will they bastardize the original property?

4 out of 5 on the decomposition scale.

© D. L. Noah, 2007