4. Harold's Going Stiff
The twist: The pensioner is the zombie! Its Yorkshire setting, microscopic budget and cast list might suggest
Night of the Living Dead meets 'Last of the Summer Wine'
, but originality abounds in Keith Wright's 2011 indie comedy. After an epidemic of a strange neurological syndrome known as Onset Rigor Disease (ORD) renders useless the joints of the UK male population, our chaps are left lurching around, arms outstretched, their cries for help reduced to low moaning. The source of the disease is believed to be widowed pensioner Harold Gimble (Stan Lowe)- and so he must be destroyed. As you'd expect from that
Carry On-esque title,
Harold... doesn't take itself too seriously. The opening half-hour presents a farcical fly-on-the- wall mockumentary; the 'zombified' state of ORD patients is hardly the stuff of nightmares. Yet the gore, although infrequent, is no less startling. Headshots, baseball bats and the elderly are indeed a messy combination. But the heart of the story concerns Harold's 'Jekyll and Hyde' transformation from man to monster, his uncontrollable rage and his nurse Penny's (Sarah Spencer) attempts to protect him from the swarms of vigilantes. While the point is far from laboured, it's clear that the syndrome acts as a metaphor for society's neglect of the aged and infirm. Given the potential for bad taste, the result is surprisingly touching.