Take a group of people, stick them in an enclosed space, add a monstrous creature to the equation, and watch the horror unfold. It’s a tried and tested formula that has served the genre well for decades, and new Brit-flick Storage 24 mines that very same territory, with decidedly mixed results.
Noel Clark – on whose idea the film was based – plays Charlie, a sorry excuse for a man struggling to come to terms with the fact that he’s just been dumped. Proceedings kick off with Charlie and best friend Mark (Colin O’Donoghue) travelling to the storage facility of the title to pick up his belongings post break-up.
Noel Clark as Charlie in Storage 24.
But wouldn’t you know it, former girlfriend Shelley (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) is there with friends Nikki (Laura Haddock) and Chris (Jamie Thomas King) to collect her things, making for a painfully awkward encounter.
Humiliation and embarrassment do not a horror movie make however, and at around the same time, something hits London hard. Initial reports suggest an earthquake or bomb, but it soon becomes clear that the threat is from another world, or more specifically, the alien contents of a military cargo plane that has crash-landed in the middle of town.
For convenience sake, the creature ends up in Storage 24, the crash sends the facility’s security system into lock-down, and the malevolent monster and our five miss-matched humans become trapped inside. Cue broken bones and spilled blood as the creature goes on the rampage and the humans fight to survive.
And that’s about it in terms of story, though while Storage 24 hardly re-invents the narrative wheel, it does have enough jumps, scares and laugh to make it a passable entry into the over-crowded sub-genre.
Director Johannes Roberts’ previous effort was school-based horror F, and Storage very much follows in that film’s footsteps, the tension largely arising from the protagonists being stalked through dark corridors by an unseen assailant.
By the climax of the film we do get a good look at said creature however, and it proves to be the film’s crowning glory – an eight-foot monstrosity that’s a testament to the talents of effects maestro Paul Hyett – a mess of teeth and claws that’s a worthy opponent for our heroes.
Unfortunately, there’s just not enough meat on the bones of Storage 24 to put it in the same league as the numerous movies that follow the same template.
That’s because the internal strife between the characters never quite rings true, while the alien never gets the back story it deserves, making for an unsatisfactory (albeit visually arresting) villain. The addition of a homeless conspiracy theorist briefly livens things up, but he serves little purpose other than to fleetingly advance the plot.
Laura Haddock delivers a star-making turn as Nikki.
Noel Clark gives his most sympathetic performance yet as Charlie, kicking off proceedings an annoyance but gradually finding the hero within when the chips are down. The other acting standout is Laura Haddock – so memorable as Will’s love interest in The Inbetweeners – whose Nikki is a scream queen with brains whom you genuinely root for in the film’s final third.
But the result is a film that apes Alien at every turn without ever coming close to its slow-burning brilliance. And if you want to see a film about an alien invading South London, try Attack the Block, which betters Storage for both laughs and scares.
Without going into spoiler territory, the climax does set things up for a sequel, though while certainly a tantalising glimpse at what might be to come, I’m not sure the events that proceed it entirely warrant one. Taken on its own terms however, Storage 24 is an entertaining if unremarkable B-movie, and there’s no shame in that.
Source : ign[dot]com
