Running Time: 98 Minutes
Certification: 15
Starring: Georgina Campbell, Joe Keery, Sosie Bacon, Vanessa Redgrave, Leslie Manville, Liam Neeson, Richard Brake, Aaron Heffernan
Back in 2006, director Jonny Campbell made his feature debut with the Ant and Dec starring Alien Autopsy. His following credits have been televisual, including episodes of Doctor Who, Westworld, and the vastly underrated In The Flesh. Twenty years after his feature debut, Campbell returns with his second theatrically released film that blends a comedic tone with alien-related shenanigans.
Cold Storage opens with text delivering back-story, as a space station containing many scientific experiments fell out of orbit in 1979. NASA believed that they recovered all of the experiments, but they missed one crucial specimen. A tank containing green fungus is discovered in Australia, with an outbreak leaving none of the residents alive. All that remains are gnarly looking corpses.
Government officials contain the fungus and lock it away in a sealed facility. The passing years sees the facility decommissioned and sold off, before it is transformed into a 24-hour storage facility. One night, employees Teacake (Joe Keery) and Naomi (Georgina Campbell) find their shift interrupted by the contagious fungus escaping, causing a hellish night as it spreads and destroys anything in its path.
What unfolds offers grisly fun, where contact with the fungus results in a horrific outcome. Plus, when many of the characters are contemptable, their oozy comeuppance becomes anticipated. Part of the wait involves seeing animals get infected, and it is with these uneven visuals that we witness the limits of computer generated effects. It would be a minor criticism if these moments were fleeting, but when these animals have extended roles, it is distracting how out of place they look.
This should be a film where a breezy set-up gives way to the oozy fun, but the overly busy screenplay bogs it down. Too many subplots litter things, whether it is the scummy boss' money-making plan involving stolen 4K TVs, or Vanessa Redgrave's loyal customer who is a gun-owning plot convenience. The screenplay is from David Koepp, whose credits include many great films including Jurassic Park and Spider-Man, with this highlighting how such well-regarded credits doesn't stop you from making something middling.
Credit is deserved to the cast, with Georgina Campbell once more being a welcome presence in horror, Joe Keery delivering a fun turn as the himbo ex-con with little filter, and Liam Neeson doing what you would expect in his grizzled role. Despite the cast's best efforts, there is a struggle to convey the character beats and relationships. Little feels natural when these developments occur, instead coming off as too orchestrated courtesy of overly-expositional dialogue. It rarely feels like the characters are willingly sharing information, instead feeling like an artificial way to fill in the blanks.
While Cold Storage has entertaining segments, they should be more frequent across the 98-minute runtime. What remains is a subpar gross-out horror comedy which may leave you cold.
Cold Storage is available now on VoD, 4K, Blu-Ray, and DVD
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