Fido: Grade B

B
Fido (2006)
K’Sun Ray, Billy Connolly, Dylan Baker, Carrie Ann Moss; Co-writer and Director Andrew Currie.

The great zombie war is over by the time this movie opens in the 1950’s, in a leafy Pleasantville suburb. An electronic collar renders zombies harmless (though zombie-like) servants and menial workers. Ray is a 10 year old boy ("Timmy") who bonds with his family’s zombie (Connolly), who he names Fido. The anticipated Lassie references are not long in coming. Baker plays Timmy's repressed father, and Moss his gender-role straightjacketed mother. My favorite line is mother to father: "Just because your father tried to eat you, do we all have to be miserable?" Fido’s collar malfunctions one day and unfortunately he eats Mrs. Henderson, the nice lady next door, but after being chastised and having his collar repaired, Fido recovers docility, yet still seems to have more life in him than billy’s parents. This “boy and his zombie” movie is thus a mild satire of suburban life in the 1950’s, not really a parody of zombie movies. It is clever enough to make you chuckle continuously but not guffaw.