Stalled

A janitor is fixing the fan in the ladies room when people starts to turn. At first, he's a perv peeping on a couple of hot chicks. Then, the girls go zombie and he's hit by a wave of company Christmas party goers turn zombies.

This is a low budget British zombie comedy. The blood and gore hold very little scary moments. I actually like the charm of a low budget horror, but the only scary thing is that oversized stuff rat. As for the comedy part, it had a couple of smile worthy moments. Certainly, there is nothing worthy of a big laugh. The lead character WC is a loser weasel. But Dan Palmer is no Simon Pegg. He doesn't have the likability of Pegg. He's a pale imitation. For a low budget movie, it had its moments. There's just not enough moments to recommend the movie.

The premise is stupid on paper, cleaner stuck in toilet during an apocalypse, using items like door hooks and toilet seats to fight off creatures who want to turn him into a snack at the Christmas buffet. And do you know what? We at the #UndeadSymphony actually quite enjoyed this one...

Is it Citizen Kane? No, but in truth, does this little Rosebud pretend to be? It knows it's limitations, it knows what it can and can't do and does it's best with it. The main character is unlikeable and selfish, but in a way that makes you chuckle (see the scene with fingers and catapults). Some scenes which are cliché are surprisingly tense and although you don't really see the supporting actress (bar a cartoon on a cubicle door), the hints of romance are enough to make you feel genuinely for her. The gore is good, the slapstick is funny and the acting is good and brings you into the story.

Is this Citizen Kane? No, think more Phonebooth with Colin Farrell... in a toilet... with Zombies.

Very watchable, give it a crack.

Directed by Christian James and with a runtime of 84 minutes, this 2013 British zombie comedy horror film mostly takes place in the stall of a women's toilet cubicle - hence the name "Stalled". It is fair to say that this is toilet humour as it is written by and stars Dan Palmer, who goes by the name W.C. in the film (the name being the toilet humour part in case you though I was suggesting that Dan Palmer is $h1t).

At a Christmas party, things start going wrong. Partygoers are turning into flesh hungry zombies. Meanwhile a janitor, W.C. is stuck in the lady's bathroom and fighting for his life - or surviving at least anyway. There are a series of flashbacks which set the characters up, and there are some monologues to explain how feelings are being handled. There is a bit of gore as you would expect, but never too much to make the film a full-blown splatter horror film. Some of the comedy is ok, but there are a lot of cultural references which only relate to the time the film was made rather than being an all-spanning and encompassing reference point. W.C. is not entirely alone, as there is another person stuck in the room too, but she is a voice only and is never really seen. The addition of a second voice helps to make the film a little more than just one man's isolation in the situation which might have become tedious extremely fast.

Unashamedly a low budget film (£45k) with a nice concept, but it never really takes off fully and left me wanting something more to happen. I like that there was a confined element to the film and this helped the theme, but by the end of it the concept had worn down on me a little bit - the dialogue only entertained me for so long. I guess if you strip back something like "Night of the Living Dead" or "Shaun of the Dead" to a single room, with a single character, add some modern humour, this is what you get. Dan Palmer carries his creation on both shoulders and does not embarrass himself, but the film is as limited as location it uses. This is never going to be an all-time memorable zombie film, but it is a nice enough situational film which zombie fans will want to watch just for the sheer hell of it.

I enjoy all things zombie, and check out just about everything I can come across. Now, the title of this movie, the concept of the story and the fact that it brandished "a worthy successor to Shaun of the Dead" on the front cover really had my interest peaked.

So, of course I had to give it a go. And the verdict is, well, the story has its moments, and it is one of those particular movies that is thick with British comedy. A worthy successor to "Shaun of the Dead", however, nah, I wouldn't go that far.

The story is in all its simplicity about W.C. (played by Dan Palmer), a janitor who gets trapped in a women's bathroom stall when a Christmas party takes a turn for the worse and people start turning into ravenous flesh-eating zombies.

I will say that director Christian James did have an interest approach to this movie, especially since about 95% of all the movie just takes place in a confined, cramped stall in a ladies restroom. That being said, then that limitation of location also set a heavy limitation on the movie, because it was starting to wear a bit thin towards the end.

The acting in the movie was alright, especially since the entire movie was just riding on the performance of Dan Palmer and the voice of Antonia Bernath - from two stalls over.

"Stalled" is in itself a good enough zombie movie, that should be watched at least once, if you enjoy zombie movies, as I do. However, it is not outstanding, nor is it as great as initially hyped up to be. The movie is fairly generic, and while it is not amongst the worst of zombies movies I have seen, nor can I claim that it is amongst the better of such movies.

Plot

A janitor gets trapped in a women's restroom and encounters an all-out attack by a horde of zombies.

Cast

Unfamiliar with anyone involved

Verdict

I don't know why but I was quite excited after reading the premise many years ago when it got added to my watchlist. It must be 6-7 years since that day and I've only just got round to it.

Now I'm a big zombie fan, without question it's my favorite sub-genre and I think zombies and comedy have a history of going hand in hand very well so my expectations were quite high going in.

The first thing I noticed was how good some of the writing was. Slightly marred by some oddly crass stuff a lot of the dialogue is surprisingly good, quite deep in fact in a couple of places and I didn't expect that.

The humor? Some stuff really hit the mark and was laugh out loud.

Our leading man, solid.

The zombies, passable.

The execution, better than you'd assume.

Sure it's on a very limited budget but it disguises this well and delivers an oddly enjoyable zombie comedy jaunt.

Rants

Me and the missus always have a show ongoing, something to binge and we've just started The Walking Dead. I was so excited initially when it came out but then bailed at the end of Season 2 as to me it wasn't the zombie epic I expected and simply a soap opera with zombies. I'm hoping I was wrong, I'm hoping this second chance and subsequent 9 seasons beyond what I've seen improve.

Zombies are great, Stalled demonstrates that but as Walking Dead has so far demonstrated they can also be a terrible bore.

Breakdown

Unique setting Great writing Well made Needlessly crass in places.