Stalled: A Zombie Comedy Coming To A Theater (Restroom) Near You

By Nick Venable | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

stalled world war Z posterAn obvious parody of the poster for Marc Forster’s big budget zombie epic World War Z, the image above is from a zombie flick with a much smaller budget and a much more claustrophobic location. It’s for the horror comedy Stalled, the second feature directed by Christian James, which recently premiering at the U.K. Film4/FrightFest (where it was given an extra screening due to popular demand). Indie distribution company Uncork’d Entertainment just nabbed the North American rights to Stalled, and they plan on flushing this ridiculous-looking movie into theaters this October, starting at the Alamo Drafthouse outside Dallas. They’ll probably also be putting it out on VOD and Blu-ray/DVD very soon afterward. It just isn’t Halloween if you don’t have a zombie movie that takes place largely inside a restroom.

Yep, that’s right. Stalled is about a lowly custodian, played by the film’s screenwriter Dan Palmer, who is spending his Christmas Eve cleaning up instead of taking part in the shenanigans happening at the annual office party in the same building. Two very strange things occur: he gets trapped in a ladies’ room stall, and a zombie outbreak occurs. Darn the luck! It looks like the majority of the film takes place inside this restroom, with an endless horde of costumed zombies coming in and out, making life a living hell. Having trouble considering what a film like this might look like? Check out the gory red-band trailer below, which might not be as terrible as you’re thinking, depending on what you’re thinking.

The FrightFest site hilariously calls it “The Evil Dead meets Phone Booth in a toilet,” and there’s no reason to think or hope that it’ll be any different. I love movies that take place in a single location, such as 2008’s refreshingly simplistic monster movie Splinter. It forces the director to ramp up his or her cleverness, and this looks like James will throw everything at audiences but the kitchen sink. (Because there is only a kitchenette sink in this office, probably.) I’m sick of watching movies where groups of teenagers are off in some remote location getting picked off one by one. If it takes a janitor and a bunch of shit humor to get away from that stereotypical template, so be it. I can’t wait for this, as crude and depraved as it may be.

If you’re interested in checking out more work from James and Palmer, their time travel short film Absence was recently hosted on Warwick Davis’ YouTube channel The Multiverse.

stalled poster