Stalled (2013) Dan Palmer, Antonia Bernath, Tamaryn Payne, Mark Holden Movie Review

Stalled (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Dan Palmer in Stalled (2013)

Zombie Convenience

W.C. (Dan Palmer) heads into the ladies, not because he has some sort of perversion or desperate need for the toilet but because he is a janitor. But whilst there something happens and he finds himself trapped in a stall as one zombie after another enters. Now with just the tools he is carrying he needs to find a way to defend himself and get to safety.

I think "Stalled" maybe the closest I have come to what can only be described as a minimalist zombie comedy; in fact I think that would go for it being just a zombie movie as well. But minimalist may be the wrong word because usually that conjures up images of artsy movies which "Stalled" is certainly not and I hate to use the word low budget to describe it because low budget often conjures up the image of low effort and some of "Stalled" is certainly not low effort.

But here is the thing about "Stalled", it is seriously uneven and so you have a scene where W.C. whilst trapped in a cubicle realises that the handful of zombies are dumb and so if he peers over the door they go to his reflection in the mirror. And then you have the horror comedy of not only it being a Christmas party so you have zombies in fancy dress but also moments like retrieving his phone from a blood filled toilet. The trouble is that whilst there is a lot of creativity the stuff in between which focuses on W.C. just talking ends up a little too boring.

But I have to hand it to Dan Palmer who plays W.C. as he also wrote "Stalled" and some of the comedy is brilliant and dare I say it at times is up there with the comedy in "Shaun of the Dead". In fact I will go as far to say most of the visual comedy works even if it starts a little too male fantasy which is cheesy. Unfortunately it is the non visual stuff is where "Stalled" struggles.

What this all boils down to is that "Stalled" ended up better than I had been expecting and whilst uneven the horror comedy parts of it did make me smile.

Tags: Zombie Movies


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