Cold Storage defrosts 90s nostalgia

Cold Storage is a sci-fi comedy, horror mash-up directed by Jonny Campbell and starring Joe Keery (Stranger Things) and Georgina Campbell (Barbarian) as Naomi and Teacake. It follows two newly built storage center employees as they take on a long night shift. Unbeknownst to them, a long forgotten parasitic fungus has broken out of an abandoned government lab beneath them. As the fungus works its way to the surface rapidly, Naomi and Teacake deal with a group of black-market bikers, a suicidal grandmother, a distressed boyfriend, and the impending federal agents, Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville, who are tracking them down. 

This is Jonny Campbell’s second feature film, his first since 2006. The mostly television-based director comes storming back with a nostalgic and exciting offering. He brought along writer David Koepp, who wrote the novel the film is based on, to write the film as well. You really feel the cohesive and focused vision that Koepp has created, and I think having him on board really provided the backbone that this project needed. This felt so comforting and really brought me back to the creature feature comedy horrors that I loved of the 90s. The spirit of films such as Critters and Tremors was ever present throughout and that style of comedy was utilized perfectly. It never tries too hard to be funny. The humor is dry and quick, and it never is distracting from the chaos and carnage.

The horror and sci-fi genres were both represented here as well. The kills were absolutely gnarly, and the gore was perfectly balanced in and always looked fantastic. The fungus itself, while not being a character technically, was almost given a voice through its possession of people. It’s a genius way to give this nearly invisible villain a way to communicate and it also provided many of the funnier lines in the film. The lore and the qualities of the fungus really made it original and unique. They were able to flesh out so much about it naturally in the story. At times, the plot could get over its skis a bit with the chaos that was stacking on top of each other, but the characters were able to keep the course steady enough.

Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

Cold Storage has a litany of fun characters throughout, none more charming than Joe Keery as Travis or Teacake. He is the perfect zoomer representation. He is a bit dull but has a lot of heart and the more you learn about him, the more you really start to pull for him. His chemistry with Georgina Campbell as Naomi really worked for me. She portrayed her down on her luck and adventure-thirsty character extremely well. The pairing really was the perfect juxtaposition to the more serious and older (but still very dryly funny) federal agents played by Neeson and Manville. Switching back and forth between them really kept the pacing on track and never made the film feel stale. I did think while Neeson worked, Lesley Manville was an odd choice and fit for her character. She always felt like the least believable of the crew. 

This film really came out of nowhere for me, with little marketing and a release that seemed to just appear, but it was an absolute delight. The nostalgic beats of Cold Storage really do harken back to a time when films like this were being pumped out yearly. I have really missed this niche corner of sci-fi horror that makes me laugh and grosses me out simultaneously. I am grateful for the partnership of Koepp and Campbell here and can't wait to see the careers of Campbell and Keery bloom.

Cold Storage is currently playing in theaters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1dUt1BXDjc