1. It has zombies and I love zombie flicks
2. People die in grotesque ways
3. It uses a clever setting to introduce zombies, and the humans can control the zombies in this one
4. The movie has other plots going on, that would be there without the zombies
I know how much fun resident evil movies can be, or how serious George Romero movies try to be. Sometimes it is worth it to see a different take on zombie films.
What makes "Fido" different is the setting for one thing. It is set in the 1950's America, looking picturesque and perfect with its pleasant suburbs and tidy appearances. The only things that stick out are the zombies doing yard work, walking dogs, delivering newspapers, and even delivering milk. It's a refreshing perspective from many of the modern, gritty portrayals of our society thrown into hellish times. No, this film has the zombies, but life goes on. It goes on normally actually. The people of the town Willard, know zombies as slaves, creatures who do what they are told, thanks to the fantastic invention of the domestication collar.
The collar the zombies wear keep them in check, and helps them resist their craving to devour humans. "Fido" is one of the few zombie movies to have a creation that actually tames zombies. Thus, it can now tell the story of what a society does with the now safe zombies and the struggle to return to normalcy.
- Eats human flesh
- Moves slowly, has slow motor skills
- Radiation from space came to Earth and made people turn to Zombies
- Do not appear to eat other animals
- Can become a zombie by dying, or being bitten
- Killed by severing head, or destroying the brain
- Mindless creatures, but capacity to overcome their need to feed to feel human emotion
Plot
(***SPOILERS BELOW***)
The town Willard is thankful to Zomcon for making the domestication collars which allow them to control the zombies and even keep around dead family members. Funerals are expensive and rare, since it is cheaper to become a zombie. In a typical funeral, the body is placed in one casket and the head in a separate box, making sure the person cannot rise again as a zombie. It is revealed in the beginning, the "Zombie War" went on for a long time between humans and zombies, before they realized zombies died from shooting the brain.
Timmy, our main character, is a young boy whose father detests zombies, so his house is the only one on the block without a zombie servant. Timmy's mother, a housewife, not to be upstaged by her neighbors by being the only household without a zombie, goes out and gets one.
The father is none too happy with the zombie servant and Timmy thinks nothing of it, distracted by his own problems like two bullies at school. When his zombie rescues him from the bullies, Timmy begins to like him. Timmy calls the zombie Fido, finally finding a replacement for his father who avoids spending time with him.
Unfortunately, Fido's collar malfunctions and he kills Timmy's neighbor, revealing his savage instincts to eat human flesh. The collar turns back on, bringing back the kinder Fido as long as the red light on the collar doesn't go out.
With the help of another neighbor, who was fired from Zomcon for having a romantic relationship with his zombie "Tammy", helps fix Fido's collar and warns Timmy to tell no one the collar wasn't working.
Throughout this, Timmy's family struggles to stay a unit while the father stays obsessed with funerals and goes to everyone. It is revealed the father's father turned zombie and tried to eat him, scarring Timmy's father forever. Timmy's father goes on golfing outings, ignoring his son and even oblivious to his very pregnant wife.
Timmy and Fido are kidnapped by the two bullies who want to be heroes for killing Fido. They disarm the collar and become victims of Fido's unleashed hunger. Fido does not kill Timmy though and can restrain his hunger without the collar, because of his feelings for his friend. Timmy sends him to find Timmy's mother to help Timmy.
The mother comes just in time to kill the two bullies, who are now zombies. She then burns both bodies and all evidence of Timmy being there, while cautioning Timmy he should not think this is typical behavior of a family. One of the more touching moments of this film is when the wife tries to apologize to Fido for the father's mistreatment of him. She looks into his eyes and wishes she knew him before he became a zombie, knowing they could never be together now.
As the zombie outbreak is calming down and the zombies are being killed. Fido becomes a suspect of starting the outbreak by attacking Timmy's neighbor and is taken by Zomcon. Timmy, with the help of his neighbor, who worked at Zomcon, breaks into Zomcon to find Fido. They cause a distraction by disabling the collar on one of the zombies there to cause chaos.
Timmy is caught by the present Zomcon chief, who put Fido away, and is thrown into the "wild zone". It is a place outside the fences that protect Willard from zombies on the outside. Timmy watches at zombies stagger toward him.
Timmy's mother and father break into Zomcon to rescue Timmy, and the father, defensive of his worth as a father, goes to save Timmy alone. He and Fido find Timmy, and after a struggle with the Zomcon chief, the father is shot. Timmy deactivates Fido's collar, setting Fido on the Zomcon chief and killing him. Timmy's father is buried in a funeral process, which makes sure he cannot become a zombie. The mother has her child, and shares a happy life with Fido and Timmy. They can now live their lives with Fido included, happy and normal.
Comments/Criticisms
- Liked the 50's atmosphere of keeping normalcy, despite having zombies mowing your lawn.
- Disliked how far of a stretch is was that the father was so uninvolved with his family's life; not noticing his wife's belly, not caring about them except at the end, and the mother having to reassure Timmy his father did care about him =>seemed too far-fetched.
- Liked the idea zombies could grow to feel emotions.
- Disliked how it was never clarified if Fido's feeling kept growing or he would always have to have his collar on.
- Liked other cultural comments in the movie, such as the distrust of "old people", but it was not explained well.
- Disliked the poor character development of some characters, such as the father, who does a 180 at the end.
- Liked the attraction that is shared by the Timmy's mother and Fido, but wish it was more elaborated upon.
- Liked cases of shocking acts, like the mother burning down a shed and killing two zombies quite easily.
- Liked the vanity of the mother: who fit the cliche of keeping up with the neighbors, and trying to be a good wife and mother.
- Why are there no prisons? Do they throw the criminals to the wild zone?
- Has Zomcon replaced the authority of the government, since they seem to have a lot of control in people's lives?
- Why does Fido still have to wear the collar at the end, just in case he gets hungry?
- Are fathers portrayed poorly in this film? Timmy's doesn't care about his son that much, Timmy's father is scarred by what his father tried to do for him, and the Chief of Zomcon ignores his daughter.
- Did anyone think it was a little wrong for the neighbor, who helped Timmy get into Zomcon, set a hungry zombie on innocent people just to get Fido?
- Is it ok to keep family members as zombies?
- What is film saying when a zombie is a better friend and parent than a human?
- Parallels to slavery?
"Fido" is not for people who want to see a lot of gore and little plot. It tries to say something about society and still hold and seeing zombies as a threat to normal life, and actual people's lives. It is very fun to watch, with vibrant colors that make the lifeless zombie bodies stand out even more. It is an interesting point of view to take on "what would happen after zombies came?". It creates a place where zombies have found their place as servants, but still remind humans of the threat they are.
I like this film for exploring the idea of a world where humans and zombies can get along, or where humans can keep zombies subdued. It brings up the idea, that if zombies were not dead, then wouldn't it be wrong to treat them like slaves? This film explores the human side of the zombie, or what remains after it is turned. I think it would be more interesting to see if a zombies can progress or regress to what it once was years down the road.
It is worth watching if you like zombies and need something different and refreshing. I am disappointed the film didn't exploit the ideas of zombies feeling emotions more, but maybe that is for another film to do. This film helped open up the idea of how to treat zombies, and whether they deserve the same dignity as they did in life.
I give it two and a half zombie heads (2 1/2 stars).
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