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You Got Your Horror In My Comedy! No, You Got Your Comedy In My Horror! Moriarty’s Seen FIDO And BLACK SHEEP!
Boy, this is a tough mix.
I’ve seen more movies tank because they try to mix horror and humor than almost any other particular genre-bending effort. And I’m not sure why it’s so tricky, either. I think these are the two genres where people are trying to get an involuntary physical reaction out of you as a viewer, so it makes sense that they’re closely related...
... well, I guess you could say porn tries to do that, too. Hmmmmmm.
This weekend sees the release of FIDO, a movie I knew nothing about until our own Quint went a wee bit apeshit about it last year. I have a long history of disagreeing with other contributors on this site when they adopt films. Like CABIN FEVER, for example. Oh, man, did I hear about CABIN FEVER for a loooooong time. “It’s awesome! It will change your life! It is the greatest horror film in the history of horror films!” And... it wasn’t. I’ve seen you guys complain about it in talkbacks, too, and it’s just one of those things... sometimes people get crazy excited about a wee little tiny film, and in trying to convey that excitement to others, we can go overboard. When Quint went nutty for FIDO, I sort of put it in the category of “Yeah, we’ll see.”
And whattaya know? It’s a spiffy little movie, funny and sweet and with a great eye for time and place. Andrew Currie does a very nice job as a director, evoking FRANKENWEENIE/EDWARD SCISSORHANDS-style Tim Burton but never aping him. He’s got a fondness for ‘50s style that doesn’t seem like kitsch or like an empty pose. Instead, he seems to use it as a way of suggesting an innocent-looking world with secrets and tensions bubbling just under the surface. He uses his setting to ground the admittedly fantastic premise of the film, that the world has been through a Great Zombie War, and that they have come out the other side of it as the masters of these creatures, able to control them by the use of restraining collars. Zombies have become a subclass in society, used as domestic help and in thankless service jobs. Guilt-free slaves, essentially.
The world has become a series of walled communities. Inside the walls, it’s this perfect plastic life. Outside the walls, everything is a “wild zone,” where zombies still roam free. Even within the walls, anyone who dies will still become a zombie unless they are buried without their heads, so people have to pay attention. Especially to the elderly, who “you can’t trust.” Aside from these minor inconveniences, it seems like a pretty good world overall. The film tells the story of the Robinson family. Bill (Dylan Baker) is a typical dad, a little bit of a workaholic, frustrated by the attempts his wife Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) makes to keep up with the neighbors. She finally talks Bill into buying the family a zombie (Billy Connolly) of their own, a development that troubles their ten-year-old son Timmy (newcomer K’Sun Ray) at first. He’s picked up his dad’s phobias about zombies, and he doesn’t trust the zombie at first. But gradually, he begins to see the zombie as more than just a convenience when it protects him from some bullies and starts to exhibit a real personality. He decides to name the zombie, like a pet, and soon Fido is his best friend. This causes Timmy to question the notion that zombies are simply dead meat, stupid and without any spark behind their eyes. Sure, Fido has the occasional slip, and a neighbor or two might get eaten, but Timmy can tell... deep down inside, Fido’s good.
Bill has good reason to be upset about zombies, but he won’t tell his family why. And Helen’s drive to keep up with her neighbors masks a deeper dissatisfaction. And as Fido works his way into their lives, all these things come bubbling up, exposed. And by the time they realize how important Fido is to them, those “little slips” catch up, and ZomCon shows up to take Fido away. Timmy has no choice but to fight for his friend, enlisting the help of his creepy neighbor Mr. Theopolis (Tim Blake Nelson), who might love his own zombie, Tammy, just a little bit too much.
FIDO doesn’t quite tap the same sort of genuine emotion that SHAUN OF THE DEAD managed, but it’s a solid satire, and it’s worth checking out. Don’t go in expecting it to be a horror film, though, because it’s obvious that screenwriters Dennis Heaton, Robert Chomiak, and Currie weren’t really trying to write a horror film. They use the zombies as a device, and they aim for laughs and social commentary more than anything.
On the other hand, Jonathan King’s BLACK SHEEP manages to play as both horror and humor in equal measure, and that’s fairly amazing when you consider it’s the story of killer sheep. If you asked me to pick the five least threatening animals in the world, I think sheep would make the list. Then again, so would birds, and Hitchcock managed to make that work. If FIDO seems to channel the work of early Tim Burton, then BLACK SHEEP definitely takes its cues from the early gory days of Peter Jackson’s career. There were a few places in the film where I felt the same mix of hysteria and nausea that DEAD ALIVE and BAD TASTE both inspired, and I like that feeling. It’s not something many filmmakers are able to pull off. You know where I mentioned those films that other contributors have overhyped? Another of those would be UNDEAD, which I really, really, really wanted to like. It just felt inert when it obviously wanted to be insane. Well, King manages to set the tone for his film from the opening scenes, and he maintains it for the entire running time. As a child, Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) showed a natural aptitude for sheep farming, which made his father very proud. Unfortunately, it also made his older brother Angus (Peter Feeney) very jealous, and Angus played an awful prank on Henry. Turned out to be poorly timed, though, because as he was playing the prank, their father died in an unfortunate accident. The combination of the prank and the trauma led to Henry developing an almost pathological fear of sheep, and he left the family farm as soon as he could.
Now, as an adult, he comes back to the farm, thinking he’s going to have a quick visit to pick up a check as Angus buys out his part of the farm. What he doesn’t know is that Angus has big plans, determined to create a new breed of sheep through genetic engineering. Now, what have we learned about genetic engineering in horror films, kids? That’s right... don’t do it. Because when you do, you’ll create evil zombie sheep and freaky sheep-people mutants that will slaughter all of your investors. And as soon as Henry shows up on the farm, everything goes to hell. Fast. And pretty soon, Henry finds himself on the run, fighting the evil sheep with the help of an adorable hippie chick named Experience (Danielle Mason). It’s not much more complicated than that, but what makes it work is the way Jonathan King obviously knows how to stage a scare and also how to stage a joke. And he knows how to balance the two with surprising precision.
I love the gore in the film because it’s not trying to offend or top any gore ever seen on film. Instead, it’s gleeful splatter, and King seems to relish every drop he spills. I’m curious to see what King can do with weightier material, but this film’s so much fun that I’m glad this is where he started. He proved his chops, and if you’re tired of seeing films that don’t live up to their potential this summer, then you should definitely check this one out, where a ridiculous premise yields deliciously deranged results.
Now let me go finish some of these damn transcriptions so I can get these set visits and editing bay visits and interviews posted for you guys this weekend.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
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great
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I said I was first, dammit! Do you hear me?!!
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I'm probably not, since I paused to read the story, but both of these sound awesome, Fido especially...
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extremely
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Really. The little boy's named Timmy, too.
It's great fun, though. -
Jun 15, 2007 8:46:04 AM CDT
This is still very uninteresting news Tom
by supercowbell 4 cant stop the cowbell
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I'm still more excited by Teeth. Is that out on DVD yet?
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Gotta love Tim Blake Nelson. He's my favorite non-musical part of O Brother. I think you can check out the trailer on rottentomatoes.
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I hope people are seeing Severance. It just opened here in Philly last week. It's funnier and scarier than most horror/comedy films, SotD included.
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Most definitely worth seeing. I wouldn't say it's funnier than SotD, as it's much more of a straight thriller/horror film than SotD. Looking forward to catching both Black Sheep and Fido.
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I the trailer still looks like a whole mess of fun, but I am soooooo bored of the whole "suburbia smothers you with stifling conformity" shtick. It's old and not really true. Ever notice how they almost always have to set these movies in the 50s? It's because Leave It To Beaver and the Donna Read show created these fantasy lands that never really existed either. Find a new target guys to spoof guys.
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but, to me, Black Sheep was "meh". The jokes don't work and it seems that the filmmakers tried so hard with the jokes that it distracts from any horror. There was some decent gore, but that's it.
Loved Fido, though. -
I'm sorry. It was.
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More impressive that King is a first time director. Haven't seen Fido yet but it looks like the gag will wear thin after a half hour. Hopefully I am wrong.
And I am sure the total grosses for all 3 films won't surpass any given weekend of Wild Hogs. -
Would love to be involved in creating a new, groundbreaking addition to it. Squirells maybe? Can't wait for Black Sheep.
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Though Fido is better than Black Sheep... Black Sheep somewhat disappointed me.
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It does remind you of early Peter Jackson. Full review here:
http://tinyurl.com/pv8do -
Thanks Moriarty, great reviews! I'll be sure to check them both out if they play anywhere nearby.
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As a previous poster noted, it's more a thriller/slasher with some humorous moments. Anyone expecting large laughs is on the wrong track with that one, but it is a great film nonetheless. Looking forward to seeing Fido though....Black Sheep, not so much. And am I the only person who thinks Jackson's pre-Frighteners work was, well let's look for a polite word, shit? Bang on comment about Undead though, started out with such promise, thought it was going to be a lot of fun. Bit of a letdown that one.
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I was so ready to love it, I heard it was great, midnight showing at the Alamo and I was so bored I wanted to leave. My friend kept saying "who cares about this stupid plot why are they spending so much time on it" I don't know why because the plot was boring the acting was boring the characters were AWFUL and they just spent so much time on them.
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was the first press screening I went to in L.A. and I don't think I've seen a worse movie since. Abysmal. Thanks for reminding me, Mori. I'll def. see Black Sheep, looks like fun, but for some reason, that Fido trailer makes me cringe. I know it's been getting decent reviews but it just doesn't look all that funny. It seems to me like it'll be one of those movies that you're sort of curious to see, but will end up being a major letdown. I'll wait for DVD on that one. Now when the hell is Joshua coming out? Little bastard looks creepy.
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he was turned into one by that bitch of a wife. The comedienne formerly known as Pamela Stevenson. His comedy career has been dead since he made that joke about Ken bigley.
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Watch Undead and Resident Evil 2 back to back and see which one makes you more angry.
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Once again, Romero beats everyone to it. Heh.
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Their creepy bug eyes and grasping beaks don't get to you? Tell me I'm not the only one!
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It was a low budget film, self-financed, made beginning to end by the 2 brothers. Unfortunately a lot of people compare it to multi-million dollar films, so of course it'll come up short. Performances were a wee bit wooden, though! The irish film Dead Meat does the mad cow version of Black Sheep - and that came out a couple of years back.
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