Spoiler Alert!
Fido is a charming movie about a boy and his pet… ZOMBIE. What?! I know. Pet zombie.
It’s set in the good ol’ fifties. A major corporation called Zomcon fought the zombie apocalypse and figured out how to control zombies, turning them into the equivalent of slaves through use of clever electronic collars.
The movie combines cute, charming, and creepy. Odd ingredients for a horror film, but the collaboration works well. The cleverness and creativity of setting it in such a ‘goodie goodie’ time period while also maintaining a spot in the horror genre is absolute genius. The innovative nature of the film lumps it into groups of classics such as Pleasantville.
The zombie–Fido–is treated similarly to a beloved canine companion. The little boy’s name is Timmy and at one point, Timmy is in trouble. There’s a scene where Fido gets help from Timmy’s mom:
“What’s wrong, boy? Is Timmy in trouble” Ha ha, nice, zombie Lassie…
Timmy, of course, has enemies in the form of two scouts from his school who are training to work for Zomcon.
The oddity of the zombie control collars is that apparently, sometimes, they stop working. So, Zomcon has a head of security who oversees outbreaks. Instead of having retirement plans, they have funeral savings plans! Apparently, it’s a privilege to be buried instead of being turned into a zombie after death.
Part way through the movie, Fido’s collar goes off–thanks to being pounded on by the walker of a crazy old bat named Mrs. Henderson. Fido eats her. Timmy buries the woman’s body in the cemetery after killing her for a second time. By then, though, she’d bitten several other people, creating a zombie frenzy in the town’s park.
A bit Fido’s collar spontaneously goes off again. He still doesn’t eat Timmy or Timmy’s mom–alluding to the fact that maybe the zombie has developed feelings? Hmm…
Another oddity: as Timmy’s mom becomes more infatuated with the zombie (ugh, I know) the more liberated she seems to become. By 2/3 through the movie, she is defying her husband and suggesting he ‘get his own beer.’ Obviously they intended to show a correlation between owning a zombie and women exerting their independence (??) and maybe I’m just dense, but I didn’t get the connection.
Duhn-duhn-duhn! Police discover Timmy’s ball near the crime scene where they discovered Mrs. Henderson’s body! Fido gets taken away in the Zomcon police wagon! The boy lost his zombie! Zomcon covers it up by releasing a news report saying the bullies from Timmy’s school had killed her and then burned themselves alive in a shed outside of the park.
The family, though, just isn’t the same without their Fido.
This is, hands down, in the genre of way-out-there alternate realities. At the same time, it has made it into my list of favorite innovative story lines. While I probably won’t watch it on a Halloween list in the future, I would watch this movie again.
Up next on the list! House on Haunted Hill (1959 version!) (which is available on Amazon Prime video for free–as is Fido!)
Mad Movie Maven 