When a highly contagious, mutating microorganism with world-ending capabilities threatens to escape a decommissioned military facility, the unlikely trio of Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell, and Liam Neeson are the only thing standing between our planet and total annihilation. If that sounds crazy to you, then you get the vibe of “Cold Storage”, a comedy horror film that is utterly bonkers in the best ways imaginable.
You would never know it, but “Cold Storage” is only the second feature film from director Jonny Campbell and his first since 2006’s “Alien Autopsy”. Here he gets some terrific material to work with from screenwriter David Koepp, who is adapting his own 2019 novel of the same name. Just as good is the all-in cast who fully embraces the film’s horror and comedy elements. Keery, Campbell, and Neeson take center stage. But they’re surrounded by great pieces including Leslie Manville, Vanessa Redgrave, and Sosie Bacon.
Some opening script tells us the government once stored top-secret scientific experiments on the Skylab space station. When it fell out of orbit in 1979, some of its debris crashed to earth. Most fell in the Indian Ocean, but other parts hit land, including an oxygen tank near the small village of Kiwirrkurra in Western Australia. When all contact with the village is lost, bioterror agent Major Robert Quinn (Neeson) and his partner Trini (Manville) accompany Dr. Hero Martins (Bacon) to investigate. The trio discovers a rapidly mutating parasitic fungus that is highly contagious and lethal to its carrier.
Jump ahead eighteen years to the remote Atchison Mines in Missouri River Bluffs, Kansas. It was once the home to a high security top-secret facility ran by the U. S. Department of Defense. But years passed and the DOD decommissioned the facility. After remaining abandoned for years, it was finally purchased and turned into a 24-hour self-storage business.
Enter the chatty and slightly neurotic Teacake (Keery) and his new co-worker Naomi (Campbell). They work the night shift at the storage company which usually consists of long boring evenings where nothing happens. But that quickly changes after the overly curious pair track a mysterious beep to an old console behind the walls. It leads to the duo discovering the once sealed military base and more specifically its lower sublevel where the parasitic fungus had been isolated for decades.
As you can probably guess, the deadly fungus spreads and wrecks havoc throughout the complex. Meanwhile, alarms secretly go out to the Department of Defense who immediately contact the retired Major Quinn. He’s sent to the Kansas location to contain the fungus before it escapes the facility. But he’ll need some specialized equipment, and maybe a little help from some old and new friends if he’s going to head off a potential apocalypse.
“Cold Storage” manages to surprise in so many different ways. First is the effortlessly playful chemistry between Keery and Campbell. Together they mine as many laughs as scares from Koepp’s gleefully outrageous script. Then there’s the lights-out supporting characters. In addition to Neeson and Manville’s special agents, we get Teacake and Naomi’s slimeball boss (Gavin Spokes), Naomi’s obsessive ex (Aaron Heffernan), a stubborn DOD Colonel (Robert Brake), Quinn’s inside ally (Ellora Torchia), and the elderly Mrs. Rooney (Redgrave) who comes to check her storage unit at the worst possible time.
Just as fun are the film’s visuals which feature a healthy helping of practical effects with some well incorporated digital enhancement. I don’t know if decaying flesh or bursting bodies ever looked so good. So as you can tell, “Cold Storage” has a little something for everyone. It doesn’t lean too far one way or another – striking that pitch-perfect balance between straight comedy and gory horror. And as a proud genre film lover, it delivered on its potential in ways that I ever expected.
VERDICT – 4 STARS
Keith & the Movies 