STORAGE 24

Storage 24 (15)
Director: Johannes Roberts
Screenplay: Noel Clarke, David Fairbanks
Starring: Noel Clarke, Colin O’Donoghue
Will their first contact be their last?

Sometimes after you’ve seen a movie, you know that in a weeks’ time, you will probably have forgotten all about it. This is very much the case with Storage 24. In fact the next day, my girlfriend had forgotten what we had seen. “Storage 24” I told her. That’s not to say it is an awful film. On the contrary, awful films tend to stay with me just as long as great ones. It is average films that get forgotten the quickest. Our brains seem to filter out mediocrity.



Johannes Roberts is best known for "F", his high-school based horror which whilst intriguing in parts, ended on a rather unfinished note.

But Roberts has nothing to do with the screenplay here (he wrote "F"). Noel Clarke penned the screenplay - which is clunky at times. Some of it is refreshingly real whilst other parts are too “on the nose”. He clearly has some talent but if Storage 24 is anything to go by, he still has room for improvement.

​

The characters are rather two-dimensional and plot twists are virtually non-existent. It’s all just a bit too predictable. And the crazy guy in a dressing gown who turns up halfway through proceedings just confuses things. As a character he simply is not needed.



Its saving grace is its sense of humour. From the opening scene we are aware that this film isn’t going to take things too seriously. That underneath the alienesque claustrophobia of the storage facility there is a joke waiting to be cracked. It serves to undermine any real scares in the film but the comedy is subtle and for the most part, successful. The actors involved also do ok although none of them do enough to make the movie their own (Although Laura Haddock does look pretty darn good!)

Storage also deserves credit for doing what it does on a small budget.

 

The vast majority of the film is set within the storage facility and kudos for the production team for making the location seem more expansive than it obviously was. The special FX also merits a mention. Although the death scenes themselves are relatively tame, the impressive insect-like alien is a hard slap in the face to CGI reliant horror films.



By the end of the film we realise that the alien invasion is not just limited to the storage facility. It looks as if the whole of London and possibly the world is under attack. It gives us hope of a sequel. Although maybe hope is the wrong word. Possibility of a sequel is probably a better description. Because if and when one is made, I may well have forgotten that the original even existed.