Who's a Good Zombie? You Are!

A co-worker recently loaned me a movie that he happened across under rather unusual circumstances. I'd never heard of it myself. Basically, cross Pleasantville with Dawn of the Dead... or something like that... and you have Fido.

Set in the 1950s -- but a version of the 50s that you'd see on Leave It to Beaver -- a zombie apocalypse has been thwarted, but leaving a world behind in which anyone who dies comes back in short order as a zombie. Fortunately, a huge corporation has invented a collar you can put on a zombie to essentially domesticate it and suppress its urge to consume human flesh. The result, a helpful fixture in every suburban home of standing, somewhere between a dog and a slave, your own zombie to make like easier.

That's just the backdrop. Fido tells the story of a young boy named Timmy (yes, the Lassie reference is intentional) who befriends the new zombie in his home. But when the zombie collar malfunctions and "Fido" winds up killing someone, Timmy is forced to conceal the murder or risk losing his new best friend.

It sounds dark, but you have to consider the oh-so-nice overtone of the whole thing. This is simply put, a strange little movie. It has an odd cast too. Billy Connolly stars as the titular zombie (and no, doesn't really speak for the entire film). Carrie-Anne Moss plays the loving housewife who lobbies her husband (great character actor Dylan Baker) to get a zombie so their family can "keep up with the Joneses." And a young child actor named K'Sun Ray plays Timmy, always keeping tongue firmly in cheek.

The thing is, Fido is a lot more clever in concept than it is in execution. On paper, the whole "Hi honey! I'm home! What's the zombie put out for dinner?" gimmick sounds great for some laughs. And for a while, it is. But it also seems like it could be a way of packaging a fun and subversive message, for example in the way that Dawn of the Dead satirizes consumerism. Fido doesn't really seize on any such opportunities.

Fido really isn't really a bad movie; it just doesn't really live up to fun premise. A real fan of horror movies in general, or zombie movies in particular, would surely find something to love, and to those people I would recommend it. Overall though, I'd only rate it a C.