The words “fungus” or “fungi” can bring up a lot of images, most of them not very pleasant. It is that kind of mental uneasiness that Cold Storage plays on, and with relative success. With a fun cast and a script by David Koepp (based on his own novel), the film takes the audience on a fun ride and causes them to squirm and cringe along the way.
The story, inspired by the descent and breakup of the 1979 NASA space station Skylab, follows the premise of “what if?,” when part of the uncollected space station contained a mutating, highly aggressive fungus that could spread rapidly. The film starts in Australia, as we watch the fungus spread in a small town, causing bodies to explode from within. A small team of NASA agents (led by Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville) manages to isolate, freeze, and box up the fungus for storage in a government warehouse, but it doesn’t stay contained for long.
We jump ahead to see that the government storage facility, with all its frozen horrors, is now collecting dust deep underground while a new, modern storage facility opens on the surface. Watched over by as much focus as you could imagine, especially on the night shift, are Travis “Teacake” Meachem (Stranger Things’ Joe Keery) and new-to-the-job Naomi Williams (Barbarian‘s Georgina Campbell). Travis and Naomi discover the underground cold storage, but a breach has already happened, putting in motion a wild collection of scenes that include both humans and animals getting infected.
Director Jonny Campbell does a great job letting David Koepp’s story lead the way, but at the same time, puts his own stamp on the film with some interesting camera angles and shots. The contrast in lighting between the new storage facility and the dark, decaying, and now infested government storage below is wonderful, more so when the fungus finally makes its way above ground. For a lower-budget film, it’s tricky making the mutating fungus seem real, but the team behind the camera, from the director to the lighting, to the special effects, does a solid job working with what they have.
Joe Keery and Barbarian‘s Georgina Campbell play well off each other, and so do Neeson and Manville, making for an interesting dynamic of younger and older actors. Individually, they all do what they need to do to move the story along, but it’s when they work in pairs or groups that the chemistry shines. Adding to the mix is Vanessa Redgrave playing Ma Rooney, a woman in mourning with a storage locker to relieve memories, but at the same time, takes no crap, either. She is not in the film long but she steals every scene she’s in.
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There are numerous little subplots going on, like Naomi’s ex Mike (Aaron Heffernan) making the mistake of coming to the storage facility at the wrong time, and a group of bikers who want to rob the storage lockers, but that, too, is an ill-timed idea. Along the way, we see rats, cats, and deer get infected, all with different results, both disgusting and fun.
The comedy and horror combo is never far from the story, right from the prologue with the on screen text reading, “Pay attention. This sh*t is real,” to a character stating, “Open your mouth, I want to throw up in it,” showing us that Koepp knows who he’s writing for, and thankfully, all the actors were on board.
The horror-comedy genre is tricky to navigate, and Cold Storage has its share of challenges. There were numerous times when I thought they could push the gore even more, and, conversely, take the comedy in a more detailed direction. However, that is the double-edged sword of this genre.
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Everyone has their own likes and dislikes, but when combining these two things, it can cause people to shift wildly in their opinions, so finding that sweet spot is even more difficult. Thankfully, for the most part, the film moved at a good pace, so you quickly moved back and forth from said genres, and just went along for the ride.
While Cold Storage may not catch as many eyes as it hopes, especially in the dreadful release window of February, it is a solid horror-comedy that takes a small-to-medium budget and creates an efficient and fun time at the movies. Here’s hoping there is an audience still out there to watch these lower-budget films and maybe bring us back a bit to the glory days when budgets and marketing actually allowed a film to make a profit.
