Watch Harold's Going Stiff For Free

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Masterpiece!

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, I thought the same. Yet another low budget zombie film; even worse, a comic zombie film. The last one of those I watched was the horrid DEADHEADS, so at least I knew HAROLD'S GOING STIFF couldn't be worse...or could it? That innuendo-filled title didn't promise much...What a surprise to sit down and watch the film, then! HAROLD'S GOING STIFF sidesteps all of the usual problems faced by low budget filmmakers, and isn't actually a horror film at all. Instead it's a black comedy in which the zombie disease is likened to a terminal illness or a life-affecting condition such as dementia. The zombies here are victims, people gradually losing control of their bodies and struggling with medical tests and their condition. The whole thing is presented as a pseudo-documentary which sits nicely with the low budget.The comedy is a mix of the subtle and the slapstick, the latter coming into the story with a group of amateur zombie hunters who come across like the Three Stooges. At the film's heart, though, is the titular character; Stan Rowe gives a warm, moving turn as the afflicted Harold, struggling to come to terms with his new life. Much of the focus is on his relationship with his carer, played by the excellent Sarah Spencer, who is the story's heart and soul. Things get darker and darker right up until the tragic climax, in which my tears were flowing freely. Who'd expect that from a low budget zombie flick?

With recently discovering that a friend was a big fan of the Zombie Horror Comedy Shaun of the Dead,I decided that for Hallaween,I would surprise her by sorting out a "serious" Horror,and a Horror Comedy that she could watch on the Hallaween weekend.Picking the 2010/11 movie Insidious to be the "serious" title,I went searching around on the IMDb Horror board,which led to me getting rec'ed a movie from a fellow,kind IMDb'er that sounded like one of the most off-beat Horror movies you could possible find.The plot:Being labelled as "the first victim" of a new disease spreading in the UK called O.R.D (rigor disease) widowed pensioner Harold Gimble lives his life isolated at home,with his bones slowly stiffening as the O.R.D. starts to turn him into a Zombie.Feeling uneasy around new people due to local gangs wanting to get hold of him for spreading the disease and local doctors desperate to perform tests on him,Gimble is initially nervous when nurse Penny Rudge pays her first visit to help him with the effects of his illness.Showing Harold a good natured,sunny side up personality,Gimble begins to feel much happier than he has been for months.But,with the O.R.D. beginning to have a serious effect on his health,Harold begins to fear that he does not have much time left before he completely turns into a zombie.View on the film:Setting the movie against the hauntingly beautiful South Yorkshire backdrop,writer/director Keith Wright's tremendous screenplay goes in the opposite direction of past Zombie movies to create a folksy Horror tale that even people who run away from Zombies will find impossible to resit.Focusing on the relationship between Harold and Penny,Wright uses the Zombie illness in a manner to paint a touching portrait of the light that Penny brings into Harold's twilight days,whilst also never forgetting to include a good dose of warm Comedy (with Harold putting washing up liquid into everyone's cup of tea being a particular highlight.)Watching an interview with Wright on the DVD,I was shocked to discover that the movie only took 9 days to film!.Impressivly,Wright makes sure that the limitation never get in the way of the story or the character's,with Stan Rowe and Sarah Spencer both giving heart-warming performances as Harold and Penny,and Wright also taking a delicate docudrama approach to the directing of the movie,which helps to create a real intimacy with the character's,and also leads the viewer in wanting to pay a visit to the nicest Zombie there has ever been right away again.

I enjoyed this film. It's quirky, different and whilst it is a bit amateurish in a way; I prefer to see it as quaint.I've watched it twice. It reminds me of "I, Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain" with a bit of a "Series 7: The Contenders" slant.Hollywood glitz is all well and good but sometimes it's great to watch something different and appreciate it for what it is, not berate it for what it isn't.There are a few plot holes but this clearly isn't supposed to be a "solid" narrative, the endearing characters more than make up for any inconsistencies for me.I can't wait to see what's next from Keith and the star of the show Sarah Spencer!

Yes, it's got an original theme and I'm open to any new ideas in the Zombie genre so of course I gave it a try and stuck with it to the very lackluster end. The name says it all, for what it's worth it was funny in the beginning that being the only part that got a serious laugh out of me, the rest of the film has bits of tongue in cheek comedy throughout. It wasn't exciting at all, as it had no "real" action or anything spooky or scary, also zero gore as the story leans more towards a "feel good" message. The plot is simple, a small distant village has a sudden epidemic of the town's men contracting this condition making their joints stiff & eventually making them dumb & violent(so of course they are dubbed zombies). The local police allow these "zombies" to be hunted down and murdered by anyone that feels the need(ridiculous). The bulk of the film is watching an old man & an overweight nurse spend time together forming a relationship while they cut back & forth with news of the current events & the trio of moronic "zombie" hunters bashing people in the head that they determined were in need of it. It was slow & pretty boring so I don't recommend paying to see it & I'm a die-hard zombie fan, but if you like the zom/com genre and have time to kill then I suppose it would be a decent choice. I give it a generous 5/10