What We're Watching: Tracy

Fido, directed by Andrew Currie, starring K'Sun Ray and Billy Connolly.

Zombies seem to have taken over our world lately: classic Marvel superheroes have been zombified, the new Zombieland film is tops at the box office, "zombie walks" have become all the rage, and the spoof novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: the Classic Regency Romance -- Now With Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! is being read by book clubs across the country.

In the alternate reality of the darkly comic Fido, the bucolic world of 1950s suburbia has literally been taken over by zombies. A cloud of space dust has reanimated Earth's dead, and after a terrifying Zombie War, the multinational conglomerate Zom Con has perfected a method for controlling zombies and
re purposing them as domestic servants. Zombies deliver the mail and milk, clean houses, pick up the trash, and landscape the lawns. And only very rarely does a zombie's containment collar fail, resulting in a brain feeding frenzy through the neighborhood. Little Timmy Robinson's family has just gotten its first zombie, Fido, as the film opens. But Fido isn't an ordinary zombie. He quickly fills in for Timmy's absentee, workaholic father, and seems to be falling for Timmy's mom. Timmy couldn't be happier. But then Fido eats the neighbor...

The story plays out in a fantastically realized setting, perhaps best conceptualized as Leave it to Beaver meets Dawn of the Dead. The 1950s houses, interiors, and clothes are kitschy masterpieces, perfectly captured with technicolor style cinematography. The horror elements are presented in an over-the-top fashion that you can't help but laugh at. And for those who remember Lassie, there's even a classic "Hurry! Timmy's in the well!" moment.

Pour yourself a bowl of gummy brains, turn out the lights, and settle in for the night with Fido. Just be sure to take a glance over your shoulder every once in a while...