Happy Tuesday, Blogizens!

Last summer I caught a kick-ass Canadian zombie flick at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival called Fido.  This very same movie is coming out this weekend, and First Weekend Club is doing some awesome promotions to get people pumped for the undead.  They’ve organized zombie walks in Vancouver and Toronto for the premiere this Thursday and have brain-eaters handing out promotional materials in cities across Canada as we speak.  Read on for my review, and get out this weekend to support some awesome Canadian cinema.

BRAINS FOR BREAKFAST
-Andrew Currie’s Fido

The world needs more 9 AM screenings of zombie flicks. How often do you get to see people eating brains before you eat breakfast? This morning Andrew Currie’s Fido provided just that opportunity. Touted as the biggest-budget indie ever produced in BC, and rumoured to involve zombie children, this was not to be missed. I arrived at the ROM just after 8 to find the zombies had decided to gather outside the theatre this fine morn, scores of them standing in a haggard, rough-hewn line, bumping into one another and grumbling that their coffees were still too hot to chug. I love the smell of zombies in the morning.

Once inside the zombies were far less affable, these of the more standard, brain-eating variety. The movie, however, was a far cry from your standard zombie romp, and seemed more about friendship in a confusing world than about blowing bad-guys heads off. Weird, I know. But Currie delivers a hilarious and heart-felt flick that walks the line between horror, comedy, drama, buddy-flick and social satire (y’know, that line), and does it all without the wry wink that would dismiss it all as a farce.

Fido follows young Timmy Robinson as he struggles with bullies, friendships, and a difficult relationship with his folks. On top of it all Billy lives in a post-zombie-invasion 50’s where the undead are tamed by a high-tech collar that renders them harmless servants, pets or friends. Enter Fido (played by the hilarious Billy Connolly), the Robinsons’ newest housekeeper/playmate for young Timmy, and we watch as kind Fido does his best to reign in his most zombie-ish instincts. Timmy and the newly-tamed Fido are getting along swimmingly, until Fido’s collar goes on the fritz and the proverbial shit hits the fan. It’s kind of like Harry and the Hendersons, only if Harry was a zombie, and it was set in the 50’s.

The film is full of excellent, well-directed performances, not the least of which comes from young K’Sun Ray, as the wide-eyed, precocious Timmy. Carrie-Anne Moss delivers a surprisingly spot-on comic turn as Timmy’s tormented mom; though the biggest laughs come from Tim Blake Nelson (Syriana; O Brother, Where Art Thou?) as the Robinsons’ neighbour, Mr. Theopolis, who appears to have a less than savoury relationship with his zombie-servant Tammy. Yes, it’s as creepy as it sounds.

With Fido, Currie has delivered one of the most refreshing and original indies in recent memory, and painted a promising picture of the future of Canadian filmmaking. When it’s all said and done, Currie has managed to defy any genre classification imaginable, while holding the film together with a sharp focus on character and relationships, and an unflinching commitment to the story. He does away with the obvious sight-gags and shriek-fests, leaving nothing but deliciously deadpan dark-comedy, with a few greyed-out, bloodthirsty zombies thrown in for flavour.

And all before 11 o’clock.