Storage 24 (2012)

Directed by: Johannes Roberts | 84 minutes | horror, science fiction | Actors: Noel Clarke, Colin O’Donoghue, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Laura Haddock, Jamie Thomas King, Alex Price, Ned Dennehy, Geoff Bell, Ruth Gemmell, Davie Fairbanks, Amy Pemberton, Robert Freeman, John Hasler

A military cargo plane crashes in the British metropolis of London and the top-secret cargo of the aircraft is scattered across the city. Charlie, Shelley and their best friends Mark and Nikki are oblivious to the fact that the city is being sealed off after the incident. They are in fact located in Storage 24, a gigantic storage space. The purpose of their visit: Charlie and Shelley have to divide their belongings among themselves after a recent breakup. The separation of minds, however, soon becomes the least of their concerns. When the power suddenly goes out in the enormous storage space, a horrifying realization soon dawns on the foursome: they are not alone in the dark maze full of endless and dark corridors. Because there is something deadly in Storage 24, something that is out of this world. In order not to end up as a snack for a hungry alien entity, the foursome must escape from a place that was actually designed to keep business inside.

A terrifying alien monster and a maze-like, extremely sparsely lit corridor system: ‘Alien 3’ showed that a good combination of these two ingredients can produce a film classic that is as oppressive as it is beautiful. ‘Storage 24’ elaborates a bit on this approach, although the deadly serious character of ‘Alien 3’ makes way for a more light-hearted approach in which the typical British humor is given the necessary space every now and then. ‘Storage 24’ is certainly not innovative. The film mainly treads the beaten track, is at times quite predictable and contains rich clichés that you normally associate with a genre film of this type. For example, the seasoned enthusiast will be able to predict with the necessary accuracy halfway through which characters will make it to the end of the film and which characters will breathe their last at an early stage. But despite the predictability and somewhat clichéd effect, ‘Storage 24’ is still a film that guarantees the necessary moments of accessible entertainment. The bloodthirsty monster doesn’t look too bad – certainly for a film with a very limited budget – while horror fans are also treated to quite a bit, sometimes quite explicitly portrayed gore.

Don’t expect a movie that can compete with ‘Alien’ or other extraterrestrial horror gems when you put ‘Storage 24’ in your DVD player. Nevertheless, this British production is quite enjoyable for the lenient lovers of horror prints with a humorous aftertaste.