‘Fido’ a new spin on zombie movies
Take a brief look at “Fido” and it looks like a typical, family picture.
“Fido” is the family pet in this tale that looks like it takes place in the 50s. The boy’s name? Why Timmy, of course.
But wait a minute! “Fido” is rated R. Timmy and his pet in an R-rated picture? What’s going on?
Well, Fido isn’t a dog. He probably doesn’t even have a wet nose. Fido is a zombie, a member of the undead that walks the earth of this highly-colorized world in which this picture takes place.
The film opens with one of those school educational films. It details how the Earth went through some space dust, causing the dead to rise up and feast on the living. Not a good thing.
But a scientist designs a collar that when placed on the zombie’s neck, makes him or her peaceful and docile. (How do they get that collar around his neck?)
And so we see this idyllic “Pleasantville” type community where rotting, walking corpses are serving drinks to their masters in suburban back yards.
The zombies are so prevalent, they are used to wave good-bye to visitors leaving the community.
As the film opens, Timmy’s (K’Sun Ray) family has no zombies. His father (Bill Robinson) is scared of them, after his father became a zombie and almost devoured him.
Ah, but the neighbor has all kinds of them, that’s because the man living there works for the company that invented the collar that keeps the zombies in check.
Timmy’s mother, Helen Robinson, wants a zombie, if only for the status. Enter Billy Connolly as Fido, who died of a heart ailment, as one can see from the scars on his chest.
Fido is fine for awhile, but then eats the nasty neighbor lady. Nobody is sorry to see her go, but then Timmy is concerned he will lose his dog, er, zombie.
The film, with its saturated color, is absolutely over-the-top crazy and very funny.
As “Shaun of the Dead” has already proved, zombies are no longer scary, they are funny.
There is a lot of satire that is contemporary and this perverse world takes a lot of imagination.
Most people don’t have funerals because the zombie craze has made that too expensive. But when there is one, the head has its own casket. That’s because the dead can’t become zombies if the head is detached.
Aren’t you glad to know that?
The R rating is really not fair. There is lots of blood and gore, but it is laced with so much humor, the film is anything but scary, except for young children.
Oh and the neighbor with all of the zombies? He and his company aren’t nice at all and that adds to the humor.
And when characters in the film die, there’s no need to worry. They’ll soon be back as the fun-loving undead.
So have yourself a skewed good time and rent “Fido.” Just don’t eat anything with ketchup at the time.
This appeared in the Star Beacon WEEKENDER July 4, 2008.
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