Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Of the nearly 20 films I saw at AFM, this one is my favorite.
What I knew before sitting down to watch Lionsgate's FIDO: Trinity, Lizard and Delmar were in it (Carrie-Anne Moss, Dylan Baker and Tim Blake Nelson dontcha know?) and it had something to do with a kid with a pet zombie.
I wasn't really prepared for what this movie was. Imagine, if you will, taking elements from all of George A. Romero's DEAD films and combining them with IRON GIANT, then sprinkling a pinch of SHAUN OF THE DEAD over the whole thing. Finally, the cherry on top, being a bit of LASSIE, for that extra sweet kick.
First of all, this film is a period piece, set in a '50/early '60s like world. America (and presumably the rest of the world) has been through the great zombie war, caused by space dust... but that's just a throw-away explanation of the existence of zombies. The how doesn't really matter. This film picks up when communities have been rebuilt. There are "wild zones" where zombies still rule, but a giant corporation rose out of the ashes of the Great Zombie War: Zomcon. They erected walls around the populated cities, have patrols all around the human areas and have even devised a collar that immediately takes away a zombie's impulse to feed, making them suggestible and totally docile.
When I say this corporation has built walls around these cities, it's not like LAND OF THE DEAD. These cities are pure 1950s Americana, idyllic suburbs, all women in dresses, men in suits, etc. Just now there are zombies added to the equation.
Zombies are now servants. Essentially all the labor intensive jobs belong to them. They carry groceries out to your car, they mow your lawn, they clean all the trash out of the streets, they deliver the milk, the mail and newspapers.
These suburbs are safe... except for a real threat... the goddamn elderly. In this world, the radiation which began the zombie infestation still lingers, so when you die, no matter what the cause, you return as a zombie. So, the biggest breaches of security happen when an elderly person dies.
Our story focuses on a family in one of these suburbs. We have a distant, kind of assholey, father, played by Dylan Baker, a well-meaning and sweet, but ignored wife, played by Carrie-Anne Moss and a young boy of 10/11/12-ish. The boy, Timmy, is lonely. He's picked on in school by a pair of bullies, he doesn't buy into the Zomcon corporate line and catches hell for it, but he's a good kid.
One day Moss goes behind Baker's back and buys a zombie. Think of them like man-servants. They're one of the last on their street to have a zombie mostly due to Baker's distrust and fear of them.
Of course, Timmy and this zombie become close. He names the zombie Fido (because he wants to play catch) and Fido becomes very much a best friend and protector, like Lassie or the Iron Giant. Get the Brad Bird mention now?
What really blew me away in this film was Billy Connolly as Fido. I refused to believe that was the famous Scottish comedian. He disappears in this movie. I can say, in all seriousness, that Connolly's work in FIDO is up there with Peter Boyle's (YOUNG) FRANKENSTEIN and Sherman Howard's Bub. He's more serious than Boyle's work in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, but not as serious as Howard's work in DAY OF THE DEAD. He's on some middle ground. You get to know his mannerisms, understand his grunting and growling... know when he's laughing, know when he's sad.
There is some real gore in this movie, which makes it such a great, unique flick. There's no language, no nudity, totally kid friendly... even the main zombie make-up isn't scary. But then there are some really fucked up zombies and some real life zombie carnage, head shots, ripped limbs and torrents of blood. And some crazy innuendo. Tim Blake Nelson has a live-in zombie woman... his girlfriend, who has a kind of nervous tick which makes her clack her teeth together. She's actually really creepy looking, her lips black and pulled up revealing her totally rotten teeth. But the rest of her is a pretty, blonde woman.
Lionsgate should be proud of having this film and I hope they do the right thing and release it intact. I don't think there's any way they're getting away with an PG-13, but they shouldn't try for it. And I pray to the movie gods they don't dump this to video. It's a very solid film, probably better than most films they have on their release slate.
Congrats to director Andrew Currie and the screenwriters for putting out something totally professionally put together and uniquely cool. Thanks to K'Sun Ray's parents for letting him star in a movie like this when he's 13 years old (and for giving him that crazy-awesome name). Congrats to K'Sun Ray for looking like a Culkin, but not being a part of that cult of actors (and for having a crazy-awesome name). Props to Jan Kiesser for shooting a beautiful film, the rare Canadian-shot film that doesn't look like it was shot in Canada.
The release is scheduled for March 2007. I know that's a long time to wait, but when this flick comes out do support it. It's a fun, smart, entertaining, gory, but somehow still sweet film. How you make a gory zombie movie cute is beyond me, but Currie did it. And he threw some twists in there, some dark material, that just made me laugh out loud. I won't ruin them here, but there are some left turns and lines that are crossed. I'm already jonesing to see it again and, at the time of this writing, it's only been 8 hours since I left the theater. It's that good.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
