SUNDANCE 2007

Sundance Review: Fido

by Alex Billington
January 29, 2007

• US Release Date: Sundance Film Fest 2007
• Genre: Comedy, Horror
• Running Time: 98 minutes
• Directed by: Andrew Currie
• on IMDb
•    8/10

This zombie comedy that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and directed by Andrew Currie finally made its American debut here at Sundance, and is as fantastic of a treat as you could imagine. In Fido, Timmy's (K'Sun Ray) mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) buys him a new pet named Fido (played by Billy Connolly), a six-foot tall zombie who eventually becomes Timmy's only friend. After the zombie wars a company called ZomCon developed a device that could control zombies' desire to eat human flesh, therefore domesticating them and introducing an endless amount of human (albeit dead) assistants. The film is contemporarily set in the 1950's era but very modern in its visual style, camerawork, and Currie's filmmaking aptitude. A fun and vastly original, visually colorful, and enjoyable film, Fido will soon go down in horror history when it's released nationwide in June.

Fido is ruthlessly zombietic and timelessly entertaining. Director Andrew Currie and a great cast, including Carrie-Ann Moss who takes a significantly distant step away from her Trinity persona, pull together a great horror-comedy in the way that Shaun of the Dead did in 2004. The plot itself is actually well thought out, not just simply a mundane and campy story built around what initially is an interesting zombie-filled world. Only the ending gets a bit extravagant, with a big showdown at the ZomCon factory. Fido also features an awesome soundtrack with unrecognizable 50's songs interspersed amongst a great score that add substantially to the story and overall experience.

Despite that it's not exactly as incredible as Shaun of the Dead, I'll definitely be putting these two DVDs next to each other on the shelf - and they'll both get equal playtime guaranteed. Fido is already a horror classic - I can't wait for zombie fever to hit America in full force in June!

Filed under Movie Reviews, Sundance 07

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