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Fido
- Genre: Zombie
- Release Year: 2006
- Director: Andrew Currie
- Writer: R Chomiak, A Currie, D Heaton
- Running Time: 91 min
- Rating: R (for zombie-related violence
- Reviewed by: harbinger on Sun 9 Dec 07
Official Blurb:
Fido is a typical movie about the boy next door and his pet -- except in this case the loyal "pet" is a lumbering zombie named Fido (Billy Connolly). Problems arise when he breaks loose and noshes on the next-door neighbor, forcing owner Timmy Robinson (K'Sun Ray) into damage-control mode while he tries to persuade his parents (Carrie-Anne Moss and Dylan Baker) to keep Fido in director Andrew Currie's imaginative horror-comedy.
Review:
The movie begins in the small town of Willard with with a class presentation *cough backstory cough* fifties-style movie about recent history. The Earth passed through a field of radiation which caused the recently deceased to reanimate. This caused the Zombie Wars. ZomCom, a company which now runs everything in town, fenced off towns and created a domestication collar which turns hungry zombies into stupid, unpaid labor. After the in class movie concludes, the head of security for ZomCom, Mr. Bottoms, speaks to the class and it becomes apparent that one boy, Timmy Robinson, isn't as comfortable with the idea of zombies as everyone else seems to be. On his way home, the audience gets a view of how integral zombies have become to every day life - the milkman (a ZomCom employee) sits in his truck reading the paper while a zombies shuffles up to doors with milk; several zombies are maintaining a local park.
Timmy's mother surprises his father with a new zombie when he gets home from work. When he doesn't react well (he is phobic of zombies) she complains that they were the only family on the block without a one. The Bottoms are moving in across the street and supposedly have six zombies - of course, it isn't entirely surprising since Mr. Bottom is the head of ZomCom security. Thus, Fido is introduced to the household. Timmy is lukewarm towards the new zombie at first, but eventually warms up when he realizes Fido will play fetch with him. Timmy's own father, in contrast, won't even play catch with his son despite repeated promises. Mr. Robinson's relationship with his wife doesn't seem to be much better. Mrs. Robinson originally sees Fido as a status symbol but she eventually also warms to the zombie, especially when he saves Timmy from trouble.
The fly in the ointment is when Timmy lets Fido off his leash to play fetch. The ball rolls into the bushes and Fido inadvertently annoys an old lady with a walker. The walker catches on Fido's collar and deactivates it. Without the collar to curb Fido's instinctual urges, he turns on the old lady, much to Timmy's disappointment. "Oh gee! Dad's gonna kill me!" He takes Fido home and returns that night to kill and bury the old lady (now a zombie) but what he doesn't know is that she has already infected another person. Soon the town is overrun with zombies. Mr. Bottom is trying to figure out who did it just as much as Timmy's trying to keep him from finding out. Timmy is afraid that if the truth is known, his family will be sent outside of the town fences to the Wild Zone, essentially a death sentence.
One day Timmy is horrified to find out that his parents have sent Fido away. His father is relieved because he knew his wife and son liked Fido more than they liked him but Timmy is heartbroken. Cindy Bottom, Mr. Bottom's daughter and Timmy's friend, lets Timmy know that Fido is still alive in a factory but she doesn't know where. Mr. Theopolis, Timmy's neighbor and former ZomCom employee, has a zombie girlfriend so he is very sympathetic to Timmy's problem. He helps Timmy break in to the factory to be reunited with Fido ... by deactivating a domestication collar in the middle of what is essentially the zombie DMV. Chaos ensues but most people are able to escape to safety.
What I liked:
- Pleasantville meets zombies
- Pleasantville is flawed under the surface - as in, people are people and people have flaws, much as we'd like to pretend otherwise.
- They make good use of 'vintage' colors and music to reinforce the post-war America feel but without going too over the top cheesy. Also, while the world around them is colorful and alive, the zombies are gray, even down to their drab ZomCom uniforms.
What I didn't like:
- The kid's name is K'Sun! Okay, I know that's his real name and not a character name and therefore has nothing to do with the movie ... but still!
- There are a couple of deleted scenes that I think would have been just fine if they were left in. Perhaps they thought they 'had' to cut some because they 'had' to have a deleted scenes section in the DVD extras.
Rating:
Final Scoring:
5.0 Zombie Heads of a possible
5 Zombie Heads
Personal Recommendation: See it.
Availablity:
Netflix Amazon
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