The Zombie Comedy Hidden Gem Funnier Than Shaun Of The Dead, Stream Now Without Netflix
The sign of a great horror-comedy is its ability to maintain a healthy balance between the on-screen terror and its off-setting humor. The zombie genre is full of great examples of how this can be achieved, with notable films like Shaun of the Dead and Return of the Living Dead rising to the occasion. A lesser known but superior zombie comedy from 2006, Fido, checks all the boxes for this genre and can now be streamed without Netflix.
ZomCon
Fido imagines a world where the dead rose from their graves and feasted on the flesh of the living, only to be defeated in a series of events known as the Zombie Wars.
The film opens with an educational newsreel shown in an elementary school classroom that highlights the war and the zombies’ eventual defeat through the use of a device invented by the fictional ZomCon company. ZomCon produces a collar that can be placed on the undead that will not only eliminate their hunger for the living but also makes them servants.
The world Fido is set in is an alternate universe where radiation from outer space has seeped into the Earth’s atmosphere and reanimated the dead. Set in a reimagined version of the 1950s United States, Fido tells of how the radiation is still in the atmosphere and continues to bring the dead back to life.
It becomes routine to either burn or decapitate a person as soon as they die, so that their zombification can be avoided.
Fido Comes Off The Leash
Fido paints a world that is controlled by ZomCon. In what is stated to be for the sake of national security, the corporation fences off entire communities so that any future outbreak of the undead can be cut off, if not avoided altogether.
In one community, the Robinson family has one of these controlled zombies at their disposal, known only by the name Fido.
The film follows young Timmy Robinson (K’Sun Ray) as he is forced to cover up the murder of a neighbor that Fido commits. Everything spirals out of control when two school-age bullies get involved and get bitten by Fido.
After Robinson’s zombie servant is taken away, Timmy sets out to free him from a “life” of servitude deep within the confines of the ZomCon headquarters.
The Cast
Fido also stars Billy Connolly as Fido, Carrie-Anne Moss as Helen Robinson, Tim Blake Nelson as Mr. Theopolis, and Dylan Baker as Bill Robinson.
Dark Satire
The film gives a satirical set of jabs at life in the 1950s when looked at purely through nostalgia’s lens. Fido takes that romanticized era and replaces the real paranoia of the Cold War with citizens being forced to coexist with the living dead.
It’s dark satire at its best, giving audiences a sense of familiarity through its parallels to the idealism portrayed from 1950s television and coating it with the sense of imprisonment.
Fido initially shows the living going on with their daily lives as though everything is under control, before revealing that they are all gated inside a well-constructed and heavily guarded version of reality.
These picturesque towns exist as cells inside a larger “wild zone,” where uncollared zombies roam free and are able to kill anyone foolish enough to venture outside of the protective fences. This revelation shows that, while safe, the citizens are really living lives with little individual control.
Stream It Now
GFR SCORE
Director Andrew Currie does a brilliant job with the above and gives audiences a film that captures the feeling of captivity as well as generating empathy for the living beings behind the fences and the undead that are collared. The comedy in Fido is as real as the visceral and symbolic horror, presenting one of the most well-balanced horror comedies of this century.
You can stream the horror comedy Fido for free with Tubi and Roku or rent it On Demand through Vudu, Google Play, AppleTV, and Prime.
