tafeanorn

A while back we started doing Saturday Night movies nights, the three of us. Since this is one of the few times during the week that we are all together and moderately conscious, it's also the only time we actually sit aroudn a table and eat dinner together (at home, at least). So we often make one of our favorites, cheese fondue.

And so, fondue nights have become times when we must watch bad movies, for obvious reasons.

This week the movie was Fido. Billed as the story of a boy and his pet zombie, this one had great cheese potential, but instead turned out to be a really fun, well-thought-out, humorous tale.

Set in the world of Night of the Living Dead plus twenty years, Fido paints a picture of how society would change: outdoor survival class in school, zombie scouts learning how to deal with the undead, expensive double-funerals with separate head coffins, etc. But also how it would stay the same, the movie was trapped in the 50s. Shining finned cars, bright evocative fashion and the social structures of 50s suburbia fill this movie and provide sharp contrast to the grey, plodding zombies.

The town where the film is set is home to ZomCom, the corporation that has saved the world from the zombie threat and revolutionized home-life by creating collars which dull their murderous desire for brains, turning them into loyal but stupid slaves. Zombies wander about the town in grey overalls, doing manual labor.

The main character, Timmy, is a social outcast and when his mother, in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses, buys a zombie, it becomes his best friend. The movie follows Timmy's adventures with Fido as they must deal with bullies, girls, a malfunctioning collar, the neighbor with the hot zombie "girlfriend" and so on.

The film stays true to its roots, shows like Lassie (you did see that coming, didn't you), Leave it to Beaver and other from that era and pokes fun at them, without being head-on satire. The plot is well thought out and coherent, though it may try to do a little too much in places. All in all a very fun, entertaining movie. 4 out of 5.

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