All the families on the block have servant zombies, so housewife Carrie-Anne Moss gets one too (Billy Connolly), over the objections of her dufus husband Dylan Baker. He alternatively dislikes and fears zombies. Nonethless, Moss and Connolly soon have an affinity, and Moss' prepubescent son Kesun Loder also bonds with the family zombie.
Unfortunately, a glitch in Connolly's collar results in a spree of murders, beginning with irascible Mary Black. An investigation by local Zom-Com leader Henry Czerny leads to Loder, and he and his zombie get into increasing trouble.
Other subplots include mischief-making by Zom-Com boy scouts Aaron Brown and Brandon Olds, a would-be romance between young Loder and girl next door Alexia Fast, and a weird sadomachistic relationship between fired Zom-Com executive Tim Blake Nelson and his zombie girlfriend Sonja Bennett.
How others will see it. Fido was a flop at the box office, but it has managed 26K user votes at imdb.com, so it has acquired a cult following. The imdb user votes average a respectable 6.9 out of 10, and are unusual for the zombie genre in that older audiences grade the film higher (6.9 over age 45, versus 6.7 under 45), as do female viewers (7.1 versus 6.7 from men).
User comments at imdb confirm that a majority are amused. But a minority calls Fido boring, or complains that zombie movies should be scary instead of funny.
The production garnered a sizeable number of award nominations, mostly from Canadian film festivals. Although the movie appears to be set in America, it was made in British Columbia, the home province of director Andrew Currie.
How I felt about it. There are two paths for a zombie movie: horror or comedy. Although genre flagship Night of the Living Dead (1968) falls in the horror camp, and is the best of the lot, most takes on the genre have opted for comedy. And for good reason: if you can't improve upon the 1968 classic, try something else.
We like endearing Kesun Loder, the ordinary kid in way over his head. Carrie-Anne Moss is as hot as any sitcom mother, and the two dads (Dylan Baker and Henry Czerny) are also good. It's a nice touch that some of the zombies develop an affection for their human handlers. The body count is surprisingly high, but as the credits say, no zombies were harmed in the making of the movie, and the same presumably goes for the actors.