Storage 24 is kind of like Alien, but instead of being on a spaceship, they are in a storage locker facility. Not the most exciting spot for a horror movie, but really, it serves the same purpose. As long as your heroes are trapped, I guess it at least has a chance of working. And it *kind of* does here. In Storage 24, there has just been a huge military plane crash, and apparently some sort of strange cargo (i.e. killer alien) has escaped from the plane and slunk off to a 24 hour storage facility. Oh, and the plane crash has messed with all of the electronics and tripped up the security system, so everyone (all half-dozen of them) is trapped there. Good times!
The dramatic side of the story comes from Charlie (Noel Clarke) - he's all bummed out because his girlfriend of 5+ years has just broken up with him. Along with his best friend Mark (Colin O'Donoghue), he's headed to the storage locker to pick up some of the stuff he shared with Shelley (Antonia Campell-Hughes). But wouldn't you know it - Shelley is there with some friends, also picking up some stuff! And of course tempers fly out of control, and it gets worse when they find out they can't leave. Eventually they also figure out that there is a man-eating (or really, just a man-mutilating) beast locked in there with them. They'll have to work together if they have any chance of getting out alive.
So while Storage 24 is not terribly original, it's reasonably well done and has a few tense moments. Despite seeming kind of lame at first, the storage facility is actually a pretty decent setting for a creature feature. The long halls of storage units provide some good spots for chase scenes, and the multiple rooms provide many opportunities for people to take cover. Plus, you can pretty reasonably fill any room with whatever creepy crap you want. (My favorite example? Mannequin heads.)
The monster is pretty good looking too, at least from a distance. Once you see him up close, he's a little needlessly complicated (there's all kinds of stuff going on with his mouth, too much of it CGI). But it looks good in action. It's a little hard to tell how big the thing is - the chase scenes (the best parts of the film, for my money) make him look huge. They shoot these chases from in front of the person being pursued, and alien is just in the background like some big lumbering beast - my best guess is that they had a real guy in the costume on stilts. It looks awesome! But when our heroes meet him face to face, he's slightly less menacing. But as far as movie monsters go, he's a solid B. He gets some good kills and the gore is decently-executed. Let's hear it for head-smashings!
Probably the most memorable thing about the film is that it's got a decent sense of humor. There's never really any laugh-out-loud moments or sustained scenes of comedy, but there are occasional moments of levity that are pretty well done. My personal favorite was when the alien was ready to kill someone and gets distracted by one of those stupid little mechanical dogs (you know, they yip and do flips and what not). And honestly, I could see an alien being kind of weirded out by such a thing. The Alien here is basically presented like a wild animal, and I could see a wild animal reacting that way. (For the record, my pug who was watching the movie with me was not a big fan of the toy dog either.)
Both the dramatic aspects of the story and the acting are decent. The whole Charlie/Shelley breakup works well - while you never really get too invested in it, it gives the film something to do while we wait for the inevitable alien massacre to begin. A lot of the times, these movies just kind of spin their wheels just waiting to get to the carnage, so I appreciated that there was a little more to chew on here. And BTW, Charlie should have watched The Room, because you just can't trust a best friend named Mark. Both parties do well in selling the broken relationship. Noel Clarke (the dumped Charlie) does a good job with mixing anger and confusion - but never in a pathetic way. And Antonia Campell-Hughes (also good in The Canal) takes a character that could easily be hatable but manages to give her heart and let you see her side of things. As a character, Shelley has the toughest balancing act - you sway between liking and disliking her - and Campbell-Hughes does a great job keeping you on her side.
Anyways, it's hard to get too excited about Storage 24 - there isn't anything too crazy here, or anything you haven't seen before. But it's certainly not a bad movie. I enjoyed it okay. I think I watched it on a Sunday afternoon after a long night of drinking. It's the kind of movie that fits that mentality perfectly. Decently-executed, but nothing that really requires too much investment on your part. I would have changed the ending though.
I would hem and haw but ultimately recommend this movie.
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