Credit must go to director Andrew Currie and the writers of for perfectly realising the films setting, from picket fences to ‘Duck and Cover style’ information films, it’s a great portrait of the 50’s. Even down to the way the zombies are dealt with, a mixture of science, suburbia and McCarthy era paranoia. There are lots of fantastic touches which help give the film its tone of pure black comedy. For example children are taught zombie survival at school (head shots are best), old people are viewed with suspicion due to the fact that when they die they resurrect (retirement homes are prisons) and Life insurance has become Death insurance which will guarantee the policy holder a non-resurrection funeral. Of course none of this would work if the actors weren’t up to scratch, thankfully everyone is great in this film. Billy Connelly does some great work as Fido, in a near wordless performance he seems to channel Sherman Howard’s performance of Bub in Day Of The Dead, creating a zombie we really care about. It is his touching friendship with Timmy that is the emotional core of the film and the young actor also does an excellent job. Credit also to Carrie-Ann Moss, who starts of as the stereotypical 50’s housewife but effortlessly adds depth to the character. Tim Blake Nelson also provides a scene stealing cameo as a neighbour who may be using his zombie for more than menial tasks.
Fido Review
Country : USA
Year: 2007
Genre: Zombie/Comedy
Format: DVD
Running Time: 91 minutes
Distributor: Lionsgate
Whoever thought of the 1950's as a zombie-infested time? These filmmakers did, apparently, turning in a gruesomely hilarious undead romp through the black and white pages of yester-year....
Credits
Directed by Andrew Currie. Written by Andrew Currie et al. Starring Dylan Baker, Henry Czerny, Carrie-Ann Moss, Tim Blake Nelson, Billy Connolly, K'Sun Ray, David Kaye and Brandon Olds.
I’m writing this review with a huge grin on my face. Why? You might ask, well I’ll tell you reader, because I’ve just seen the most inventive and original zombie movie in a long time. But that’s not the only reason, you see, I’ve just seen the most inventive and original zombie movie in a long time that has the greatest homage to Lassie in all of cinematic history!!!! Yes, that’s right folks, Lassie. And if that sounds weird…well that’s because it is, it’s also damn funny and surprisingly touching. And that’s the best way I can think to describe
The film takes place in an alternate version of the 50’s where a zombie apocalypse really did happen, a cloud of radiation passed through the Earth causing the recently dead to rise and feast on human flesh. During the zombie war all hope for mankind seemed lost, until Mega Corporation ZomCon (http://www.zomcon.com/) built safe enclosures around towns leaving the “wilderness” zones to the undead. Not only this, the company has developed special collars that stop the zombies flesh craving and turns them into docile beings, fit to do the menial tasks required of them by their human masters. The story centres on young Timmy Robinson (K’Sun Ray) a quiet, withdrawn boy who is the target of bullies at school, but is actually quite intelligent and suspects ZomCon’s solutions to the undead problem don’t really work. His Mother Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) purchases the families first zombie (Billy Connolly), much to the unease of Timmy’s father (Dylan Barker), who hates zombies. At first Timmy treats the Zombie with content, but a friendship develops between him and the newly named “Fido”, that is until Fido’s collar starts to malfunction, causing no end of problems to Timmy and his family.
More than all this, the film doesn’t go for the scattershot jokes of Shaun Of The Dead or the craziness of Return Of The Living Dead, but allows its humour to grow from situations and characters. More than this, it manages to ask some profound questions, such as what is the meaning of life when death isn’t the end? Is it better to be dead or living dead? And is it possible to love a flesh eating monster? So my recommendation is see this film, if the above review doesn’t appeal to you then see it for the Lassie homage, it really is funny.
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Review by Chrisy Black, for Pitofhorror.com
