Timmy Robinson is a typical 1950s American boy in a not-so-typical 1950s America. The same radiation we hoped would warm our burritos has also had some adverse effects on our country's dead. Thirty years after the Zombie War, a powerful corporation called ZombieCom developed domesticization collars which would allow good ol' fashioned white folk to turn the undead into unpaid servants. It's difficult to ignore that there aren't any black people in this U.S.A. and that's the definitely not in the film by accident. Racial injustice is one of the many issues that Fido tries to touch on. Zombie films have commented on social issues before (Night of the Living Dead and racism, Dawn of the Dead and consumerism) but I don't know if any of them have tried to tackle as many as Fido. And while that sets Fido up to be stronger, the result is a film that's been spread too thin.
Fido is Zombie Lite. The gore is PG-13. The humor chuckle-inspiring. Think "Leave it to Beaver" + Shaun of the Dead + Far from Heaven. Dad works too hard, mom's unhappy in her marriage, child's feeling neglected, dad is replaced by a zombie-minority, corporate America attacks the transformed family who rebels and solidifies their status, which is then misreported by the news media. Whew. Fido tried to be a lot of things but all it really ends up being is a cute, charming, nice, light movie that speaks softly on important issues while lacking the confidence to say what it means.
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2 comments:
glad to see you included Fido in your "Month Of Horror". I wanted to make an interesting observation about Canadian made horror movies. The approach with dry/dark humor seems to be a theme among the Canucks. Just the other night we watched one called Ginger Snaps. I suggest you add that to the mix and see if you can pick up the subtle humor similarities that I can only describe as being proprietarily Canadian.
Ginger Snaps is fucking awesome. But I just watched that one, so he'll have to watch that one on his own this month. 31 horror movies gets really dull if you've seen them recently.
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