Review - Fido (2006)

This was like no other zombie flick that I have seen in the sense that it combined the "innocent" era of the 1950s and the grim, grittiness of a zombie outbreak. The movie is about a typical nuclear family living in the early 50's after the Zombie Wars. In this scenario the zombies have been modified, via neck bracelet, to be the work force of the entire town thanks to ZomCom. However, when the family's young son accidentally turns off the collar temporality and the pet zombie kills an old lady; the head of security of ZomCom goes nuts. What this movie does for the this subgenre is provide "zombie sympathy" to the walking dead.



Like most zombie movies, the walking dead are perceived as horrible, vicious, man-eating monsters, however, in this movie when the zombies have the bracelet they are almost human; they have hidden emotions of love and the simple pleasures in life they once had. In this case, Fido, the pet zombie, eyeballs the housewife as though he has feeling for her, he calms down when he has a smoke and with his collar off he still restrains from eating the little boy and the housewife. Evidenced by these actions we can assume in this movie the zombie, Fido, is not the bad guy, but rather a protector and a friend of the family.



From Blogger Pictures

The movie effectively shows the image of the typical Norman Rockwell house and the stereotypical nuclear family. The yellow house with a garage, white picket fence, the stay at home mom with the Jaclyn Kennedy pearls and father who smokes his pipe and plays golf. The set design is beautiful and really stands out in the movie. They have the vintage cars; the costuming was amazing and even the music fits the time era. The production design wasn't your typical indie or even zombie-horror movie, but rather a great experiment with color and editing. It was an overall outstanding achievement.



The acting in this movie wasn't that bad, but it wasn't the good either, but because this movie is supposed to have a calm, innocent feel to it the acting must be the same way. The only real postal-type acting that was good in this movie was by Henry Czerny, who plays Mr. Bottoms the Security Manager of ZomCom. There was great acting by Billy Connolly, who plays Fido and Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays Helen Robinson. However, K'Sun Ray, who plays Timmy Robinson, steals the show. But each of these characters has a somber and calm emotion throughout the movie that I think could have been amped by tenser emotions.


From Blogger Pictures

There weren’t any real scares in this movie, not even gore except till the end, but this movie makes up for the lack of scares with great zombie characterization and a brilliant achievement in production design. Aside from some okay acting and a radiantly crafted satire piece, this movie was a great "horror" movie for anybody who loves zombie comedy movies like Shaun of the Dead. It's not necessarily a parody on zombie flicks, but a new outlook on them. I would recommend this movie to any horror fan, but if you’re looking for something with a kick and a scare here and there, than you may want to avoid this movie.