THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

It's the 1950s. It's America. It's an alternate reality. Picture perfect streets are lined with shining retro-looking cars. Brightly coloured houses are surrounded by white picket fences and neatly mowed lawns - everything is rosy in this super happy world. Even the dead rising from their graves to eat the living was no big deal. Sure, some people got chewed on in the great war and towns had to be isolated within large walls for protection from the feral hordes but, ultimately, the world became a better place. Dr. Geiger, a renowned scientist, none too pleased with the excessively 'bitey' nature of the undead, invented a collar which, when placed over the head of a bad-tempered ghoul, turned the disobedient dead into loyal servants of humanity, proving, once and for all, that, even after death, we can still work together to make America great again. Now, it must be said, that although the collars are wonderful, they do sometimes malfunction - returning the Zombie to its default feral state. When such an incident occurs to the Zombie owned by the Robinson family, things take a turn for the worse.

MY VERDICT:

I'm still on the fence about this relatively short Zombie film. Its primary selling point is that it is a comedy - seeing as the titular Zombie, Fido, is played by comedic-legend Billy Connelly, this should come as no surprise. Some points I did find amusing, such as a collared Zombie seeing another collared Zombie throw a paper (badly) and assuming that meant he should also throw his delivery - a bottle of milk, the real-life milkman struggling to school the ill-informed Zombie. The general aesthetic of an idyllic 1950s America with walking dead slaves also brought a smile to my face - it's just so refreshingly different from the normal undead movies with people screaming and flesh flying. The acting was also definitely good overall with some recognisable actors - there are some phenomenal scenes at the end where the wildland Zombies overwhelm the militarised Zombie-rehabilitation base. However, the movie could have been funnier, more "alive" - I was left wanting more but not really sure of what more I wanted, if that makes sense. It seemed almost as if the basic premise had been thought up and a slap-dash story thrown on top of it, without careful construction, desperately trying to stretch out a one-dimensional concept to something long enough for a feature film. Perhaps the best thing I can say about Fido is that it is memorable - for better, or for worse, once you've seen it, you won't forget it (or think about Zombies in quite the same way again).