Is that blood on your Zombie?
For my first review, I thought I'd choose a movie about a subject very near and dear to my heart: Zombies. This is a quaint, heartwarming movie about a young boy named Timmy Robinson (Kesun Loder), his parents, and his beloved pet, Fido. Timmy and Fido go the park, take walks, etc. Timmy gets picked on by bullies and Fido saves the day. Oh, I forgot to mention Fido is a zombie.
The beginning of the movie explains that the zombie war/apocalypse has already taken place, humanity has taken the majority of control over the situation, and everyone's lives can return back to normal-ish. The corporation Zomcon has invented a collar that renders the zombies docile and semi-functional, allowing them to be controlled and used as house servants. All this takes place in 1950's America, with all the trappings you'd expect: the music, brightly colored houses with white picket fences, and prejudices against anything different than yourself. This time though, instead of minorities we have zombies.
The writers of this film are to be applauded. They have blended drama, horror, comedy, and disturbingly enough, romance into one film, and quite smoothly. None of these elements ever feels piecemeal or thrown in. The direction and cinematography is excellent, this film was shot beautifully. Everything looks exactly how it should. There was a lot of care taken to make this movie seem like a Lassie Movie, just tweaked a bit and substitute a zombie for Lassie. Yes, even the classic 'What is it boy?' questioning is there, adding to the similarity. But the joke never feels forced. For a zombie movie, Fido is fairly light on gore but it doesn't need it. The acting and line delivery is spot on. You can imagine taking anyone here and transplant them into Leave it to Beaver, Lassie, etc and their characters would still fit in. Save Fido, of course.
Fido is played by Billy Connolly and gives the role of the zombie slave depth and emotion. Timmy's parents are Helen and Bill Robinson (Carrie-Anne Moss and Dylan Baker). Helen is a homemaker, strangely intrigued by the zombies and seeing all of her neighbors getting undead servants, has to have one. Bill however is terrified of them due to past experience, but reluctantly agrees and makes the purchase. Also in the mix is Mr. Bottoms (Henry Czerny), hero of the zombie war, and agent of Zomcon. Lastly we have Mr. Theopolis (Tim Blake Nelson), the neighborhood kook, which creepily keeps a zombie girlfriend, but is likable enough otherwise.
I loved Fido; it's now one of my new favorite movies. It's dark comedy done very well, and I admit I do love zombies, so bonus points for that.
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