COLD STORAGE Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Jonny Campbell
Stars: Liam Neeson, Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell, Lesley Manville, Gavin Spokes, Aaron Heffernan, Vanessa Redgrave, Ellor Torchin, Sosie Bacon, Richard Brake.
This very enjoyable comedic variation on the usual tropes of the zombie movie comes from director Jonny Campbell. It was written by veteran screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, etc) who has adapted the script from his own 2019 novel of the same name. Both obviously have a love for the tropes of the zombie genre and Cold Storage has a very 80s feel about it.
The film opens in 1979 when the decommissioned US space station Skylab fell back to Earth. While the craft broke apart before during re-entry, some of the debris fell on a remote community in outback Western Australia. Part of this debris consisted of an oxygen tank that carried a parasitic fungus. A local farmer turned the tank and some of the space junk into exhibits for his local Skylab museum.
But then in 2007 the fungus somehow managed to seep out, infecting the local population, which resulted in them dying in hideous fashion.
A team of bioterrorism experts from the Pentagon arrived in the town to sanitise the outbreak. The team was led by Robert Quint (Liam Neeson). After the fungus was contained in scientific vial, the town was destroyed using a small nuclear device to remove any trace of the parasite. The parasite was stored deep inside a Department of Defence research lab within an underground military cold storage facility in Kansas.
Many years later the military has decommissioned the facility, and part of it has been converted into a self-storage unit. The unit is managed by the odious and unpleasant Griffin (Gavin Spokes), the very epitome of the horrible boss, who has arranged for a bikie gang to raid a unit and make off with a shipment of large screen televisions.
While working night shift one evening two minimum wage employees hear a strange beeping noise and decide to investigate. Ex-con Travis “Teacup” Meacham (Joe Keery, from hit Netflix series Stranger Things, etc) and single mother Naomi Williams (Georgina Campbell, from Barbarian, etc) eventually discover the rapidly growing fungus growing in the bowels of the facility.
Alerted by the beeping sound, which warns the Pentagon that the cold storage facility buried beneath the self-storage building is heating up, the government recalls the retired Quinn and sends him and his offsider Colonel Romano (Lesley Manville) to counter this new threat before it spreads out of control.
Cold Storage is the sophomore feature for Campbell (2006’s Alien Autopsy), who has worked extensively in television, and he maintains a fast pace throughout. He and Koepp manage to include plenty of CGI created gross splatter horror, exploding heads and copious amounts of projectile vomiting into the scenario. Dave and Lou Elsey have created some great, gory and icky make-up effects. Campbell and Koepp play much of the zombie action for laughs making this quite an enjoyable B-movie.
Neeson brings his usual steely, grizzled countenance and earnestness to his role as Quint, who is thankfully removed from the typical indestructible action hero he has been stuck playing since Taken. Manville is largely cast against type here but she seems to have fun with the nonsensical plot. (Her role here is a marked contrast to her work in the recent drama Midwinter Break, which is still in cinemas.)
With his goofy facial expressions and nervous energy Keely reminded me of the younger Brendan Fraser, especially when he played live action versions of animated characters in films like George Of The Jungle and Dudley Do Right. Campbell taps into a feisty resilience for her role. Keery and Campbell develop a nice chemistry and spark off each other nicely. And veteran Vanessa Redgrave makes the most of her small role as Mary Rooney, an elderly suicidal lady who visits her storage unit for a specific purpose and gets caught up in the panic caused by the spreading alien fungus.
Elena Albanese’s design for the self-storage facility and its labyrinth tunnels is quite good. The film is brightly lit, which is unusual for most zombie films, and has been nicely shot by cinematographer Tony Slater Ling (tv series Inside Man, etc).
Cold Storage may not be a classic of the genre, but it is still an enjoyable enough evening at the cinema.
★★★☆
