Cold Storage (15)

Government agents Robert Quinn and Trini Romano investigate a report of contamination from a fallen piece of the Skylab space station. A sample of a deadly green parasite with tendril is placed in cold storage in a top-secret facility in Atchison, Kansas. The US government sells off the site and 18 years later, the vault sits beneath a self-storage warehouse. Night guards Travis and Naomi are in charge when the vault's temperature control fails, and the fungus escapes.

LondonNet Film Review

Cold Storage (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Listen to your gut, before it explodes. In director Jonny Campbell’s splattery comedy horror, adapted by Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp from his own novel, a night guard at a self-storage warehouse prophetically surmises that investigating the source of a persistent beeping behind a wall might be unwise: “Maybe it’s something terrible?” Something terrible is an understatement: the piercing pings are an alarm triggered by a deadly green fungus from outer space, which infects human hosts and induces a suicidal stupor before the carrier combusts and spreads the contagion. This doomsday scenario unfolds at breakneck speed with whiplash-inducing changes of tone and pace…

Government agents Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) and Trini Romano (Lesley Manville) arrive in Western Australia to assist Nasa biochemist Dr Hero Martins (Sosie Bacon). She is investigating a report of contamination from a fallen piece of the Skylab space station. Safely cocooned in hazmat suits, the trio identify a deadly green parasite with tendrils. A sample of the invasive fungus is placed in cold storage in a top-secret facility in Atchison, Kansas. The US government sells off the site and 18 years later, the vault sits beneath a self-storage warehouse managed by Griffin (Gavin Spokes), who peddles dodgy electronics from the premises.

Night guards Travis (Joe Keery) and Naomi (Georgina Campbell) are in charge when the vault’s temperature control fails, producing a persistent beeping that sounds like a smoke alarm. They break through a wall and descend into the bowels of their workplace, blissfully unaware of the threat that lurks in the subterranean gloom. Meanwhile, Robert receives news that the otherworldly invader has escaped confinement and he joins forces with low-level military command operator Abigail (Ellora Torchia) to stop the clock on Armageddon.

Inspired by actual events, Cold Storage quick establishes a motley crew of characters ripe for stomach-churning detonation, including a throwaway supporting role for Vanessa Redgrave as a warehouse customer in the wrong place at the wrong time. Koepp’s screenplay is a curious conflation that delights in one breath and disgusts in the next (a clumsy bystander slip-sliding comically into a pool of infected innards).

Neeson perfectly exemplifies the awkward push-pull between serious and stupid, grizzling with gusto as he spearheads the crusade to protect humanity… until a bad back threatens to scupper the operation. Keery and Campbell are an instantly likeable double-act in dire straits. Fanning flames of sexual attraction between their characters is an unnecessary distraction with so much else going on, including a menagerie of digitally rendered critters in the grip of fungal intoxication that don’t gel seamlessly with photorealistic elements. Campbell’s assured direction maintains a comfortable temperature on the fringes of the hot zone.

– Kim Hu