Project-Blu ‘Fido’ Canadian Import Review, by Nate Boss

Fido

By: Nate Boss, 2.27.2009

The Movie Itself:
 Shaun of the Dead isn’t the only rom-zom-com (romantic zombie comedy) out there. No, really, it isn’t. While the sub-sub-genre may not be loaded with entries, it at least has more than one movie representing the brilliant premise with the Canadian film Fido joining it’s ranks...so...unlike Highlander, there is now two, yes, two rom-zom-coms.   

Fido takes place in a 1950’s model suburbia, where the world was still recovering from war and being inundated with propaganda. WW2? Nah, the Zombie Wars. Cities are now fenced off to prevent stray zombies from attacking and causing outbreaks. Zomcon has created these fences, along with collars to pop onto zombies to turn them into productive cogs in society, like servants. Elementary schools teach shooting, training children to be adept in zombie killing. Timmy Robinson (K’Sun Ray) is a child in such an elementary school, and one day after another day of being bullied at school, he discovers his mother, Helen (Carrie Anne Moss) has bought a servant zombie (Billy Connolly), to keep up with the rest of the neighborhood. Timmy’s father, Bill (Dylan Baker), has a distinct fear of zombies, having to kill his own father in the Zombie Wars. Timmy takes to the decaying brute, naming the undead servant Fido.

Needless to say, since this is a zombie movie, not everything is as under control as Zomcon would like the world to believe. The zombie collars sometimes malfunction, causing the control over the living dead to be removed, returning their cravings for flesh, discarding their senses of civility and allegiance. Fido has one such collar, and in one instance where it malfunctions, he kills the busybody neighbor of the Robinsons. As her corpse is not found (and the film follows the Romero rules, where the dead, regardless of cause of death, reanimate), she raises, and attacks, and the cycle begins anew. Timmy must try to cover up Fido’s wrongdoings, so he doesn’t lose his only friend, while his father and mother argue over how to handle the family “butler” who seems to have taken a liking to Helen.

The brilliance in Fido comes in the matter of factness that is presented by all these ’50’s stereotypes in their interactions with the world around them. Sure, we already saw zombies being used as menial laborers in the end of Shaun of the Dead, so the idea was already out there, but to have a portion of the film dedicated to a budding romance between a human and a zombie is great territory to cover (especially considering the long time analogy in the Romero flicks about racism/class division), and it’s flat out uproarious the scenes showing a teenage female zombie being used as a sex slave, a rotting “Real Doll” that gives new definition to the phrase “dangerous sex.”

Sadly, for every hilarious surreal moment, there is a mind numbing one to counteract. There are numerous sub-plots to the film that just do not pay off, especially the one involving the bully children (who are awful child actors, which is normally a redundant statement, but these two take the cake), which just eat time in the already small run time of the film. The entire Zomcon facility climax is flat and uninspired, ruining every positive the film had going for it up to that point. The film just loses it’s momentum, and falls victim to itself, a sad development considering the novel and unique story Fido presented. All in all, the film may be a fun watch, but it’s not likely to be title one were to be likely to re-watch...especially if you bought this Blu-ray...
Rating: 6/10

AAAAARRRGGHAHAGRGGGg

The Presentation:
Macroblock. MACROBLOCK. MACROBLOCK, HOOOOOOOOO!  

Ever since I heard of the Blu-ray release of Fido, I was salivating for some more zombies in HD. The fact that Amazon.ca went in and out of stock constantly, causing me to give up and cancel my order made me have even higher hopes for when I eventually got my hands on it. The old adage kicked me square in the nuts on this one though: Be careful what you wish for, as Fido disappoints.  

The film has a unique color scheme to it, with it’s Technicolor-esque hues, that are both vibrant (see how great skin tones look), and an echo of the olden days from when this film took place, with a very light grain level. That’s about the only nice things I have to say about this video transfer.  

The imperfections begin shortly into the movie, with blue vertical lines showing up in shots across characters faces. Frequently. But they look pretty damn good....when you compare them to the artifacting that becomes incredibly noticeable from then on. The macroblocking is absolutely horrendous in some scenes, and if one wants to see the most frequent area where the effect is most visible, keep your eyes on characters sideburn areas. There’s also color banding, a bit of color bleeding, and a few flicks of dirt mixed in (why not? every other detracting element, save for edge enhancement, rear their ugly heads!). To add insult to injury, the bottom portion of the image jumps at one point late in the film.   

If you’ve ever wanted to know what all those fancy technical terms a Blu-ray reviewer spouts in a review, Fido may be the easiest example to learn from, as it has detracting elements so obvious they’ll take a bite out of your neck.   

The audio for the film defaults to the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track which is good, if underwhelming due to the sound design for the film that is very front heavy. Rears do play a little bit of ambiance, some music seeps through, and there are some real soft movement effects, but aside from that, here’s hoping your center and front channels are good, as that’s where you’ll hear everything from. My subwoofer got a little workout for such a light on bass title, with some occasional light thuds, but nothing major or resonating. To be fair, I’m not detracting from the score of this audio (the video already damns this presentation score) for such, as not all films have equal sound lay outs, and Fido does have crisp dialog, lots of little noises going on, and a nice all-in-all sound. That 3/10 below? That's almost entirely for the audio. The video was such a low blow that it isn't earning anything but hate from me.
Rating: 3/10

Only in Fido would zombies not be the subjects photographed

The Extras:
Audio Commentary with Andrew Currie, Mary Anne Waterhouse, and Carrie-Anne Moss
This is an average track. The trio do have a rapid conversation, it just sometimes isn’t interesting. The comments about Moss’s real life pregnancy and how they worked it in to the script was interesting. They discuss a great range of topics, many were dull, but some had my interest, such as their classifications of the zombies.

Night of the Living, a Short Movie by Andrew Currie (SD, 19 min)
This short is a very moody piece about a child’s suspicions, inspired by late night horror viewings, that his father is turning into a zombie. It is nice to see the director had zombie induced inspirations which led to the creation of Fido, and they are definitely far from the norm, as this is NOT your stereotypical zombie fare. Worth a look!!!!

Deleted Scenes with commentary by the director (SD, 16 min) 
There is nothing major lost here. Some extended scenes are just so minute in their addition, that even their inclusion here is silly. It sucks that the commentary is forced as an introduction to each scene. To be blunt, these scenes were pretty painful.   

Art Galleries 
Galleries of pictures categorized into three sections: Makeup, Conceptual Art, and Fido’s Storyboard. These are not displayed picture by picture, selectable by pressing the next buttons; rather, it is played out as the camera shifts across the pictures. The Fido Storyboard is narrated, and plays out like an animated comic, and while the other two portions of this extra are passable, this one is great, and definitely worth the watch!
Rating: 5/10

Overall:
Fido may be a fun film for some, but a real exercise in patience for others, to put it politely. This Canadian import has been in and out of stock so randomly from Amazon.ca that it has been a real issue for Americans to purchase, but having seen the picture quality of this release, this difficulty may be a good thing, like nature’s way of saying “DANGER!” This disc is definitely for fans only, fans who can stand a very flawed picture quality.
Rating: 4/10