Fido (2006)

Zombie films..  Ok, honestly..I have to say I’m pretty sick of zombie flicks at this point. I mean after you enjoy the true masterpiece "Night of the Living Dead" by George Romero, (which scared the pants off me when I was younger) then subsequently (to the present day) been assaulted with every other half baked one that’s come down the pike where basically you know a big part of the story will involve dead people in various stages of decomposition chasing after living people.

After that, to me, it doesn’t matter what kind of story wrapper they put around it..weather it's zombies who were created by a big evil company in a lab aka (big industry gone astray)…. A social commentary about aids..…. A philosophical tirade on what we’ve become as a society….it still boils down to “Dead people in various stages of decomposition are going to be chasing those who are not." With that said I found "Shaun of the Dead" refreshing. Yes it was a comedy, and weve seen zombie comedies… yes… the living was being chased by the dead… bladda bladda .. but well, if you live under a rock….crawl out and see the movie. 

But today however we are talking about another zombie film that steps outside the genre as well. Fido.

As a matter of fact, if you really like odd strange films... you might as well call this movie "My new friend Fido" .. or.. "Why haven't I discovered you sooner...my new friend Fido."

Imagine mixing the movie Pleasantville with any zombie film.. which one? Well..your choice. Fido concerns the story of a society where zombies have been made into servants. The film is about a boy who adopts one as a pet. Surprisingly the story goes deeper and though ya.. you will see the prerequisite gnawing of various body parts, I think you will be surprised as you watch the family come to terms with the zombie pet and try to treat him with the respect of a regular human being.. Ya OK!! I know! I was just bad mouthing social commentary a few moments ago, but the difference is: Fido puts the message into an entertaining black comedy, set in a 1950s world, where it’s used as more than another excuse to make yet….(one… more..gulp…zombie..dead people…chasing human beings.. film).. it's actually used as a (get ready..) pretty good story line.

The movie features Billy Connolly as the lead zombie. Actually at this point I'm going to borrow a synopsis from everybody's favorite Wikipedia. Sometimes you just can't do any better than Wikipedia.

The film takes place in a 1950s-esque alternate universe where radiation from space has turned the dead into zombies. This resulted in the "Zombie Wars", where humanity battled zombies to prevent a zombie apocalypse, with humanity the ultimate victor. The radiation still plagues humanity, as all those who die after the original contamination turn into the undead, unless the dead body is disposed of by decapitation or cremation. In order to continue living normal lives, communities are fenced with the help of a governing corporation named Zomcon. Zomcon provides collars with accompanying remote controls to control the zombies' hunger for flesh so as to use them as slaves or servants.

In the town of Willard, whose name is a reference to the town in the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead, housewife Helen Robinson buys a zombie in spite of her husband Bill's zombie phobia, as Bill has had bad experiences with zombies having been a veteran of the Zombie Wars. Their son, Timmy, befriends the zombie, naming him "Fido". One day Fido's collar malfunctions and he kills their next door neighbor, who turns into a zombie. Timmy "kills" the zombified neighbor later, but not before she kills and infects another person, causing a small zombie outbreak. Zomcom security forces quell the situation and then investigate what caused the outbreak.



A few other scenes I found online and worth watching.

You can tell the people that created this really took pride in what they were creating. This goes beyond your normal low budget zombie flick, and furthermore if after reading this post, you're ready to say "Hi Fido, you can be my friend." Please visit our sponsor and buy yourself a brand new genuine copy of this great film.

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