OVERVIEW
In Cold Storage, a deadly parasitic fungus is discovered and secretly contained after a government operation in Australia. Years later, that containment site ends up buried beneath an ordinary self-storage facility, where two night-shift workers accidentally trigger a breakout. The movie follows them as they get trapped in the building while the organism spreads fast, and as a hardened containment specialist tries to stop it from escaping into the wider world.
BACKGROUND
The most curious aspect of the film’s credits is the involvement of experienced genre screenwriter and frequent Spielberg collaborator David Koepp. The idea began as a screenplay concept, though it ultimately became his 2019 novel and is now making its way to the screen. In only his second feature, Jonny Campbell chases a throwback vibe, describing the movie as a kind of “Goonies for grown-ups.”
THE REVIEW
It is a B-movie that is fun if you do not take it seriously, with its best moments coming when it leans into its gross, absurd premise. The problem is that it weirdly asks you to take it seriously, spending too much time in the outside world, and stretching the setup into bigger stakes. That push and pull leaves it at odds with itself: not wild enough to feel unleashed, and too flimsy, visually and conceptually, to make the danger feel real. For a story about a fungus that latches onto animals and humans alike, turning them into thralls and spreading through contaminated vomit, it needed to trust its premise and push it as nastily as possible.
The film opens with a trek in Australia, where the infected creature is first found, in a scene with almost nothing tonally in common with the rest of the material. From there, it jumps ahead and introduces the leads, Travis “Teacake” (Joe Keery) and Naomi Williams (Georgina Campbell). Keery plays Teacake like a future version of Steve from Stranger Things, with an endearing kind of stupidity, and his chemistry with Campbell recalls what he once had with Maya Hawke on that series. They are the right characters for this kind of story, and their charisma and earnestness keep the plot moving and make you care whether they make it out.
The problem is that the film keeps pulling away from that contained setup to chase broader “world stakes” through Liam Neeson’s character. We spend so much time with him getting the call, traveling to the location, and reconnecting with old contacts that the main threat never gains urgency.
When the zombie-like mayhem finally kicks in, more than halfway through, it is fun and gross, but also not enough. People do stupid stuff, get contaminated and possessed, try to pass the infection along, and inevitably explode. There isn’t much variety to the formula, and because we are always jumping out of the facility, the intensity never grows. Despite the casting of Liam Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave, and Lesley Manville (all three never once looking like they belong), their subplots never gain the desired weight, and really don’t mesh well with a film with fake-looking CGI animals.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A genre thriller that doesn’t ask for much, but also doesn’t deliver much, Cold Storage is mildly entertaining thanks to its central Stranger Things-style relationship. It would have worked better if it had focused entirely on its confined characters and on escalating the tension inside the facility. As it is, it won’t scare you or unsettle you, but it might earn a few chuckles from the contrast between its self-serious tone and its early-2000s-looking effects.