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Sundance Film Festival

PARK CITY -- In recent years, the 1950s as viewed and distorted in '50s movies has become a favorite target of contemporary filmmakers, most notably Todd Hayes' "Far From Heaven". So why not throw in zombies? After all, zombies were a staple of '50s horror movies. "Fido" is the cheerful horror/satire that results from this pleasantly twisted thinking.

It's about a boy and his pet Fido -- only Fido isn't a dog but rather a moldering corpse of an Undead male, rendered harmless by a collar manufactured by ZomCom. Isn't that the sweetest thing!

This Canadian film, when released by Lionsgate in mid-June, should reach out to bemused adult audience who enjoy wise-guy satires, so long as the marketing emphasizes that this movie is playing it for laughs not scares.

In an alternative '50s reality, Earth passes through a cloud of space dust that causes the dead to rise from the grave craving human flesh. The Zombie Wars put down this uprising -- you should excuse the expression -- and urban areas, here portrayed as a white, middle-class suburb, are cordoned off from the "wild zones" by security fences. Inside the fences, zombies domesticated by the patented ZomCom collar perform menial tasks for their owners.

Human relationships are made ever so delicate in a world in which a loved one can at the moment of dying turn into a flesh-eating ghoul. Thus, old people cannot be trusted, even a husband and wife maintain weapons for use against outside threats -- and each other -- and a major family expense is a layaway plan for funerals where heads are buried separately from bodies, this being "a funeral you can't come back from."

Trouble seems to find the Robinson household. Young Timmy (newcomer K'Sun Ray) has no friends but enough enemies that his dad Bill (Dylan Baker) views him as a security risk. His beautiful but ignored wife Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) rebels against his wishes by bringing home a pacified zombie (Billy Connolly) to help with chores. She is embarrassed at being the only housewife on the block without her own zombie.

Timmy names the zombie Fido. The zombie rather likes the idea of having a name and a small playmate. But when Fido's collar malfunctions and he eats Mrs. Henderson across the street, trouble looms for the Robinsons. Especially now that the head of security for ZomCom, the overly macho Mr. Bottoms (Henry Czerny), has moved into the neighborhood.

The humor in Andrew Currie, Robert Chomiak and Dennis Heaton's script, which Currie directed, comes from its startling reversal of all rules of normalcy and conformity. Old people get arrested or shot. A pregnancy is greeted with a husband's plaintive cry, "I don't think I can afford another funeral." And the magazine of choice is not Life but Death.

The film also gets mileage out of the suggestion that some zombie owners find other ways to exploit the bodies of the Undead. For instance, Theopolis Tim Blake Nelson) seems awfully pleased with his young and nubile zombie, domesticated only moments after her demise so she is hardly rotting at all. And because Bill seems more interested in golf than bedroom games, Helen wonders if Fido might not be a girl's best friend, too. This leads to such lines as "You crazy, wonderful zombie!" and "I wish I could have known you before you died."

For a one-joke movie, "Fido" does a fine job exploring every possible permutation of that joke. The actresses and young actors seem more in control of their characters than the older male actors, who deliver somewhat overblown performances. Sets, costumes, cinematography and score all ring delightfully true to the era under scrutiny.

FIDO

Lionsgate

TVA presents an Anagram Pictures production in association with Telefilm Canada

Credits:

Director: Andrew Currie

Screenwriters: Andrew Currie, Robert Chomiak, Dennis Heaton

Based on a story by: Dennis Heaton: Producers: Blake Corbet, Mary Anne Waterhouse

Executive producers: Peter Block, Jason Constantine, Patrick Cassavetti, Shelley Gillen, Daniel Iron

Director of photography: Jan Kiesser

Production designer: Rob Gray

Music: Don Macdonald

Co-producers: Trent Carlson, Kevin Eastwood

Costume designer: Mary E. McLeod

Editor: Roger Mattuissi

Cast:

Helen: Carrie-Anne Moss

Fido: Billy Connolly

Timmy: K'Sun Ray

Mr. Bottoms: Henry Czerny

Bill: Dylan Baker

Theopolis: Tim Blake Nelson

Running time -- 93 minutes

No MPAA rating...

• Quick Links  Complete Film Listing:  Premieres:  Dramatic Comp:  Docu Comp:  World Dramatic Comp:  World Docu Comp:  Spectrum:  New Frontier  Short Film Programs January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); • Fido (U.S.), directed by Andrew Currie and written by Robert Chomiak and Currie, the story of a boy's effort to keep a six-foot tall pet zombie that eats the next-door neighbor. Stars Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connelly and Tim Blake Nelson. • Finishing the Game (U.S.), directed by Justin Lin and written by Josh Diamond and Lin, about a film studio's search for a replacement for Bruce Lee who can finish the legendary martial arts star's unfinished picture, "Game of Death." With Roger Fan, Sung Kang, McCaleb Burnett, Monique Curnen, Mouse Kraish, Jake Sandvig, Sam Bottoms, Dustin Nguyen, James Franco and Mc Hammer. World premiere. • It's Fine! Everything Is Fine. (U.S.), directed by Crispin Hellion Glover and David Brothers,

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