Review By: Steve Mucchetti
SteveMucchetti@TheCinemaSource.com

It’s not often that I’m able to see a wholly unique, transcendent satire. It’s less often that I’m able to see a comedy about zombies that reminds me of Old Yeller.

Andrew Currie’s Fido is one of three great movies I’ve seen this year (along with David Fincher’s Zodiac and Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz), but it’s probably the most “original” movie I’ve seen since Michael Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was mind-blowing enough to make me mostly ignore its unbelievably pretentious title in 2004. I enclosed the word “original” in quotes in the previous sentence because it’s a fairly subjective term – the argument could be reasonably made that, in fact, everything is original to a large degree, because all movies (excluding the 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho) rely on at least some specific dialogue and plot points that have never been used in other films. Strictly speaking, doesn’t that constitute originality? Conversely, the argument could also be reasonably made that, in fact, nothing is original to a large degree, because most filmmakers are soulless bloodsuckers who do nothing but re-hash each others’ ideas and present recycled material to the American public in order to make more money. Obviously, neither of those points is entirely accurate, but I suspect the second point is slightly more accurate: When people speak of a movie’s originality, they are usually referencing the uniqueness of a movie’s idea, and most movies don’t have particularly unique ideas. In such a climate, Fido stands out incredibly.

Set in an alternate reality, Fido presupposes that during the 1930’s (or whenever), the Earth passed through a cloud of radioactive space dust that caused all the dead people in the world to rise from their graves and attack the living. Humans waged war against the zombies and eventually managed to secure several zombie-free areas where people could live in safety; all other areas were abandoned and left as roaming grounds for the remaining zombies. Fast-forward to the 50’s: Zombies are now controllable via the use of a newly-invented collar that suppresses their need for human flesh. Most families own one or more zombies that serve the purposes of both dogs and butlers, although their butler skills are generally below average. The Zomcon Corporation serves to protect human settlements from zombie infiltration, sell domesticated zombies to human families, and constantly monitor domesticated zombies (sometimes their collars malfunction).

The story begins in earnest with little Timmy Robinson (K’Sun Ray; CBS’s Smith), a lonely boy who just can’t seem to fit in at school; he gets picked on