Lying somewhere between PLEASANTVILLE and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, FIDO is a zombie buddy pic/love story set in a picture-perfect, technicolored 1950s suburb. With the world still recovering from a zombie war that broke out several decades prior, the town of Willard has found a way to keep the peace. The world beyond the gates may be overrun by zombies, but fortunately a huge corporation called ZomCom has managed to domesticate the undead, turning them into faithful servants of the human race. Director Andrew Currie's movie follows a young boy named Timmy (K’Sun Ray) as he develops a friendship with the zombie (Billy Connolly) his mother purchases to impress the new neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Bottoms, when she finds out Mr. Bottoms (Henry Czerny) just happens to be the head of ZomCom itself. Naming his new friend Fido and initially treating him like a poorly-behaved dog, Timmy soon confirms what he always secretly suspected – that zombies can have feelings too. No one is more surprised by this than Timmy’s mom, Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss), who, as an escape from of her rude, zombie-phobic husband (Dylan Baker), develops some very human feelings for the household zombie help.
The best part about Fido are the zombies themselves, with Billy Connolly giving a great performance as Fido. Even though he’s never given an opportunity to speak, Connolly convincingly comes across as kind and life-loving despite his zombie-ness. In creating the look of the 1950s, the film boasts impressively bright colors and neat furniture design. This, combined with elaborate costumes, provides a surreal backdrop for a fantastical plot. Thankfully Currie never gets too sentimental with his script, and maintains a satirical tone throughout, throwing in a severed limb whenever things risk getting to weepy.
(30 votes)
2.
Welcome to Willard, a small town lost in the idyllic world of the 50's, where the sun shines every day, everybody knows their neighbor, and rotting zombies deliver the mail.
Years ago, the earth passed through a cloud of space dust, causing the dead to rise with a craving for human flesh. A war began, pitting the living against the dead. In the ensuing revolution, a corporation was born: ZomCon, who defeated the legions of undead, and domesticated the zombies, making them our industrial workers, our domestic servants - a productive part of society. ZomCon would like the people of Willard to believe they have everything under control… but do they?
Timmy Robinson doesn’t think so. At eleven, Timmy already knows the world is phony baloney - Mom and Dad just won’t admit it. Now ZomCon’s head of security has moved in across the street, and Timmy’s Mom refuses to be the only housewife on the block who doesn't have a zombie of her own. When she brings a zombie servant home, Timmy discovers a new best friend, and names him Fido. And even though Dad has a bad case of zombie-phobia, Timmy is determined to keep Fido, even if he does eat the odd person...
Sometimes, it takes a dead man to teach us all what it means to be alive.
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