Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Stalled’

Written by Scott Edwards

​I know we have all thought about where we would like to be when the spit hits the fan and the dead start coming after us. I still like my idea of making it up to a cabin in the mountains and living off of the land until it blows over, but I know that there will be limited opportunity to get up there and I might get trapped in the city. Finding a good building that has limited doors and windows on the main level would be key, or at least blocking off the stairs and turning off the elevator so the zombies cannot get up to whatever floor you are on. Get a plan together and talk it out with whomever you want to spend your apocalypse days with so you are on the same page, since you never know when it will start.

William is working his final shift at the office and he cannot wait to be on his way when the urge to go to the bathroom hits him. Being a janitor in the building, he has access to all of the bathrooms and if he gets caught, he can just say he was performing maintenance, so he sneaks into the women’s room. Before he knows it, two women that are competing in the charity auction at the Christmas party come in and start complaining about the other women around the office, especially Heather, their overweight co-worker. Listening and giggling along, William then sees something magical start to happen outside of the stall, the two woman start to make out. While enjoying the show, William starts to get a little idea of his own and tries to video the action, but something very disturbing happen next.

Taking a bite out of her friend, both girls have been infected with a zombie virus of some sort and now they are both hungry for whomever they can find. Thinking he is safe in the stall, one of the women crawls under the door and tries to chomp on him, but William is too fast and able to make it over the stall wall into an adjoining one and tries to fortify himself inside.  Finding an old sign, William puts his knowledge to work and screws it over the opening at the bottom of the door to keep himself safe, but what he does not know is that the entire party has been infected and all have to go to the bathroom. With more zombies coming in, William has no idea how he will be able to escape, especially since he had a plan to rob the company blind on his last day.

Thinking he is all alone in the bathroom filled with zombies, William starts to hear crying from the adjoining stall. Thinking it is the zombie he pinned to the door with a screwdriver, he begs for her to stop, but he finds out that there is someone else that is alive trapped with him in the stalls. Evie is on the other side of the stalls and is having a hard time with what is happening around her. When the two start talking, William finds out more about himself than he ever wanted to admit. Dealing with problems that he has not dealt with in years, Evie is able to get him to open up about his relationship with his mother and what he was doing during his final shift.  With somebody else to look after now, William puts on his hero pants and tries to get help for the two squatters, but when all of his plans start to fall short he is not sure if he will be able to save them both, much less himself with all of the money collected for charity.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are some deep conversations that happen in this movie over the stall walls, but it is a zombie flick that has plenty of hilarity. I mean when the zombie apocalypse happens, would you like to be trapped in the bathroom with your trousers down, I think not. The few zombie kills you get to witness are classic, but a drug induced zombie dance off still has me laughing since there is no way it could ever happen. I really enjoyed the interactions between the two in the bathroom, especially since they don’t really know each other and seeing William have to open up about his past is just a fantastic piece to the story that makes you feel for him, even though he was doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Blood, limbs and brains, what else could you need from a zombie film, especially when you are stuck in the bathroom, nothing. Stay Scared.

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