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Codex Atanicus
Codex Atanicus is a three story anthology by Spanish director Carlos Atanes. Before watching the movie I never heard of the guy, but the introduction video on the DVD by one of his regular actresses Arantxa Peņa made me realize that I'm in for a hell of a ride. Experimental, bizarre, sick, strange - these are some of the words that describe the stories contained in Codex Atanicus. The anthology is opened by a 20 minute short from 1995 called Metaminds & Metabodies. I am really not into this kind of experimental videos, but I will try to summarize. It opens with a girl singing in the club. Everything looks ultra underground and the girl is connected with some wires to the walls. Strange people are watching her...
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Movie Review: Fido

Story
Set in the 1950's the survivors of a zombie war have found a way to domesticate the undead by putting them in special collars that keep them from needing to feed.

Comments
After radiation particles from space rain down on the earth and reanimate the dead a battle between living and undead pursues. The result brings forth a company called Zomcon led by a man named Dr. Hrothgar Geiger who creates a domestication collar for the zombies that keeps them in line, thus making them the lapdogs and servants of the living.

Now in the town the story is centered around it seems that everyone's aware of what to do in case of a zombie attack, from the kids learning how to shoot a rifle in grammar school to the constant Zomcon commercials on TV, it seems everyone has centered their life around NOT becoming a zombie, well except the elderly, the second they die they come back, which is why they get arrested before that happens.

The story centers around a family called The Robinsons. There's Bill Robinson, the zombie fearing, suit and tie, terrible father, there's Helen Robinson, the beautiful charismatic and loving mother, and Timmy Robinson, the smart yet unaware 11 year old who can't seem to make a friend, that is until Helen gets a zombie to help around the house. At first Timmy and the zombie don't get along, being that Timmy doesn't really understand the zombie's mentality, but after saving his ass in a fight with two bullies from school, the two become inseparable friends, so much that Timmy names him like a pet, FIDO. So the two play fetch, of course FIDO being the retriever, and within that he fetches the ball only to be confronted by a cranky old woman who ultimately momentarily glitches his collar, making him a raging flesh eater and her his victim.

Fido Fido


Timmy tries to hide the fact that FIDO's collar glitched by not telling a living soul but when an investigation pursues after the old lady bites someone else causing a chain reaction of zombifications, he's screwed. Does anyone know that it was FIDO that caused the outbreak of zombified park goers or is the secret safe forever? I guess we all know the answer to that one!

Anyway this movie, I'd have to say, is a cute little comedic approach at zombie movies. Like I said before it's set in like the 1950's so it ends up pushing out a mix of Pleasantville, Leave it to Beaver, and Day of the Dead. The entire time I kept feeling like I was watching a movie adaptation to the video game Stubbs the Zombie, which is one of my personal faves. I think they put a lot of really cool twists to the genre and made this movie something the entire family could enjoy. Not too gory, not too violent but definitely a movie a genre fan can enjoy. It's cool when you can put a good horror movie in front of a squeamish crowd and give them something they can enjoy.

Put in the beautiful Carrie-Anne Moss as Helen Robinson and the always funny Billy Connolly as FIDO and you got a really funny and easy to watch cult hit.

Final Comments
I'd recommend FIDO to anyone and everyone, this movie is by far the first movie I've seen in years that can be enjoyed by people that don't even like horror movies that much. Just tell them it's Pleasantville with bite and watch a smile come to their face. This movie is definitely highly recommended.

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Fido

ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Andrew Currie
WRITING CREDITS: Robert Chomiak, Andrew Currie
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
CAST: Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly, Dylan Baker
COUNTRY: Canada
RUNTIME: 91 min

RATING: 9/10

Fido Website/IMDB Click here
Fido Trailer Click here

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