Review of Fido (2006) by James C — 07 Jan 2010

Checked out another zombie movie with Alex as we head into our zombie production. Heard about this one a couple of years back during my one and so far only trip to Sundance. Fido happened to be there at the same time as a friend of mine who took a video game documentary out there. It was getting mildly interesting write-ups out there, but I never got around to seeing it until now.

Honestly, I was mostly bored out of my mind. Fido has an interesting concept and setting, but it goes nowhere and does nothing interesting with it. The alternate 1950s world where nuclear paranoia is replaced with zombie paranoia is an interesting and beautifully photographed setting, but it's a colorful world populated with empty, shallow characters, with a story that moves along with the slow, shuffling, and stumbling pace of, well, a zombie. So perhaps that is the intention, but if it is, it's a thoroughly unenjoyable one. The pace does not put you more in the point of view of the zombie, and style of the setting begins to wear out its welcome very quickly.

It feels like an interesting short film that was perhaps expanded into a longer one but just drawn out as opposed to actually expanded. At the heart of everything are ideas that are interesting, but the ideas are never really particularly deeply explored. For instance, if the zombie apocalypse happened in the 50s, then how would the cold war and the nuclear paranoia complicate things? The movie never introduces these questions, which underplays what's even interesting about the idea. It seems the filmmakers are more interested in just using the visual iconography of a 50s horror movie instead of actually delving into the ways a zombie movie might be able to explore the themes and ideas of a 50's horror movie.

Fido is a good pitch for a better movie. I hope someone actually follows it up with a real treatment of it that does the idea some justice.