“Jurassic Park”, “Mission: Impossible” and “Spider-Man” may not have much in common at first glance, but there is something that unites the legendary blockbusters: their scripts were all written by David Koepp! The 62-year-old is still doing well in business today, most recently writing the scripts for “Jurassic World: Rebirth” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag”. A few years ago, however, he temporarily put his work for the dream factory on hold and instead devoted himself to his first novel. The result: the sci-fi horror comedy “Cold Storage – It Kills”*.
Unsurprisingly, three years after the book was published, a film adaptation was announced, to which Koepp would – of course – contribute the script himself. Four years later, “Cold Storage” directed by Jonny Campbell (“Alien Autopsy”) is now actually coming to the cinema – where, as a homage to the sci-fi splatter cinema of the eighties, it constantly entertains for almost 100 minutes, but doesn’t leave anywhere near as lasting an impression as the author’s best-known works.
Security guard Travis (Joe Keery) and his colleague Naomi (Georgina Campbell) investigate strange occurrences in a self-storage facility.
At the end of the 1970s, NASA bioterrorism expert Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) travels with his partner (Lesley Manville) and a microbiologist (Sosie Bacon) to the Australian outback, where a mutated fungal organism has made short work of the residents of a small settlement. They can't save anyone here, but at least they secure the strange substance and take it to a military base in the USA for safekeeping.
Decades later, however, the facility was decommissioned and converted into a self-storage facility, where young Travis (Joe Keery) and his new colleague Naomi (Georgina Campbell) are currently working the night shift. But from the forgotten laboratory deep under the storage rooms, the supposedly well-secured organism comes back to the surface – and transforms all living beings with which it comes into contact into zombie-like sources of infection. So it's first up to Travis and Naomi to stop the rapidly spreading threat…
On the heels of “The Last Of Us”
When the video game masterpiece “The Last Of Us” was released in 2013, the original spin on the zombie subgenre also caused a stir. Instead of the dead being resurrected, we were dealing with people who were turned into mindless killing machines by a mutated fungus. Despite the sci-fi ingredients mixed in, “Cold Storage” now seems to obviously use this premise – which is pretty emblematic of the film as a whole.
Otherwise, this is not a “The Last Of Us” copy (even if there is another borrowing later with a horrible rat king). Instead, the priority here is to have fun and not a devastating look into a post-apocalyptic future. Nevertheless, the zombie comedy, directed by Jonny Campbell (“Westworld”), who otherwise primarily works in the series business, feels like a hodgepodge of well-known genre pieces. Apart from the unusual setting, we are dealing with a fairly generic checklist process, as is usually the case with algorithm-driven streaming productions.
Liam Neeson shines with his usual grumpy charm, but tends to play second fiddle to the action.
However, this reads worse now than it actually is in the film. Although “Cold Storage” lacks real highlights, originality and its own identity, the whole thing is still enjoyable, especially since the interplay between dry humor and bloody zombie horror usually works well. The opening in Australia already indicates that, despite the humorous touch, Jonny Campbell doesn't do things by halves when it comes to disgust and fun splatter. This impression is confirmed again and again as heads and bodies explode nonstop.
However, the flashes of B-movie charm are marred by the excessive use of CGI, not only on the human but especially on the animal victims of the fungal infestation. The deer that appear prominently seem like an urgent warning against the use of digital fauna. However, the artificial look from the computer is less disturbing in the more frequently interspersed and playful excursions into detailed microscopic images, which illustrate what the zombie fungus is doing at the molecular level.
For Liam Neeson, anticipation remains the best joy
Meanwhile, the heart of “Cold Storage” is the acting duo at the center of the action: “Barbarian” star Georgina Campbell and “Stranger Things” fan favorite Joe Keery have such a wonderfully natural chemistry with each other that you're happy to root for their normal characters as they improvise against an outsized threat, even if that threat comes across as dusty as it does here. However, the inevitable team-up with Liam Neeson is a bit disappointing. The “Naked Gun” star is allowed to show off his gnarly, grumpy charm again this time, but is largely taken out of the game for the actual showdown.
In a certain way, this may be a tongue-in-cheek meta-commentary on the former character actor's late action career – and on his repeatedly stated intention of giving it up. Nevertheless, it causes disillusionment for everyone who was (not wrongly, given the build-up) looking forward to the 73-year-old really dishing it out again in the final. And Vanessa Redgrave (“Blow Up”) and Lesley Manville (“The Silk Thread”), who stop by for guest appearances, make an impression less because of their roles than because of the sheer fact that such screen legends could be won over for this film at all.
Conclusion: A lot of things in “Cold Storage” have already been seen like this – and better – in other films. Nevertheless, the stars in good spirits and the harmonious balance of zombie horror and splatter fun make for an entertaining film fast food snack – even if it is quickly forgotten after the credits roll.