I hadn’t heard of the film Fido, and after some searching, I was finally able to find the film. I sat down and watched the movie and was pleasantly surprised. Fido is a surprisingly well-made film and the idea behind the film is also something interesting and not too far out of the zombie cliché world.

The town of Willard is like many 1940/1950s types of towns. You have beautiful homes, green lush lawns, a gorgeous city park, and zombies. (Insert the sound of breaks squealing to a stop).

Did I say, err type the word, ZOMBIES?? Yes, Yes I did the town of Willard and the world in which this film takes place had the Great Zombie War. It wasn’t till the genius Dr. Geiger determined that the only way to kill a zombie was to shoot them in the head is when humanity started winning the war. The great Doctor takes it one step further and develops control collars that allow the Zombies to interact with people and curb their hunger for human flesh.

We are introduced to those wonderful facts through a News Reel type of movie that plays before we get into the meat of the movie. If you’ve ever seen any of those old Atomic Bomb movies where people are told to “duck and cover” imagine that if you will. The way this film is done and spliced with some vintage WW2 film footage was quite intriguing. It was also a great way to introduce us to the world that Willard is in.

I will also say that this movie is your typical feel-good family movie where a boy falls in love with his Zombie, or I mean pet. Fido, the zombie his mother gets, becomes a family member much like a dog would in the old shows like Lassie. The fact that Timmy consistently says things like “Fetch boy”, “Good boy”, or in one scene, “I knew you wouldn’t eat me, boy.”

One of my favorite comedic moments is when Fido comes home and Timmy’s mother asks where Timmy is and Fido lets out a whine and wants her to follow him. I had a laugh-out-loud moment when I thought back to all those Lassie jokes where a dog barks and people would ask, “Where’s Timmy boy?”.  Some readers of a younger generation may need to do an internet search on Lassie.

The film also has some other small comedic pieces to help move the movie and plot along. You get to watch the zombies do everything in the town from assisting the milkman to delivering the local paper.

The movie does a great job of making you feel like one is sent back to the 1950’s as I mentioned before. I want to add to that point as there was some great use of automobiles in the film and even cars with those HUGE white wall tires. Also, the fact that Timmy’s mother felt she needed a Zombie to keep up with the neighbors as they were the only family without one.

Now, the movie isn’t all just laughs as there is some drama behind the movie. Timmy’s father for example has a zombie phobia because his 1 kill during the Zombie War was a family member. We also see poor Timmy stuck with a father who really doesn’t know how to relate to him and would rather be golfing. Of course, there are other protagonists such as 2 local bullies, and an old lady neighbor who gives Timmy the riot act for not putting his bike away. Also, in many pet/child movies, something happens to Fido where Timmy must rescue him.

Overall, I was pleasantly really surprised by this film and would highly recommend the film to others. The cast has some well-known actors/actresses such as Carrie-Ann Moss playing Timmy’s mother. Fido is played by comedian Billy Connolly, who played Uncle Monty in Lemony Snickets and was in a great film called Mrs. Brown. The young boy, K’Sun Ray (AKA Kesun Loder), did an amazing job considering this was his first movie role according to IMDB.com.

So if you’re in the mood for a light-hearted movie with a bit of zombies go out and find this movie, or add it to your appropriate streaming service queue. This film actually is low enough on the blood and gore I’d recommend it as an overall family film. Just keep one thing in mind when doing this: it is a zombie film and you must have your flesh-eating and shots to the head.