Director: Johannes Roberts

Cast: Noel Clarke, Colin O’Donoghue, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Laura Haddock, Jamie Thomas King, Alex Price, Ned Dennehy, Geoff Bell

Magnet Releasing / Rated R / 1:85:1 / English Dolby / 87 minutes

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Sci-fi horror can truly be the best kind of horror if done right. It allows for so much of the unexplained to be explored without boundaries or limitations.  John Carpenter’s The Thing, for instance, is an example of a film that is not only great when taken at face value, but also maintains a sense of paranoia and sinks in deep. Then there are the ones that are just plain, stupid popcorn fun meant to be enjoyed with a beer and a friend. Storage 24 does not evenly fit into either of the aforementioned categories, and in fact straddles the line between the two.

First off, the plot, while at its core is almost sickeningly cliché, is obviously not meant to be the focus here. What really pulls everything together is the fairly unique setting: A storage space (called, get this, Storage 24) containing a mysterious otherworldly creature with ill intentions. Some unknown military aircraft crash-landed in the area nearby, and apparently caused security systems to malfunction, thereby inexplicably trapping a group of friends in the very same place that happens to be the film’s namesake.

Unfortunately, not a single one of the characters here is anything but paper thin. In fact, they were downright annoying. I wasn’t sure if I was watching a Sci-fi horror flick or a poorly lit soap opera at some points. I neglected to mention that two of them are recently broken up and are still playing the post-relationship blame game—this goes absolutely nowhere. Even in such a relatable situation, I felt so disconnected and the amount of time spent dwelling on these characters make the whole giant space creature thing seem like a subplot.

With a setting so confined, you think they’d play off the whole aspect of claustrophobia. Well, they do and they don’t. Blame it on poor acting or just poor writing, but it took too long for these people to give half a shit about what could potentially be going on around them. Around the halfway mark, we hear the creature let out a piercing roar, at which point the characters are briefly startled but very shortly after get back to their own little MTV reality show.  This happens much too often and seemed a bit illogical considering the circumstances. Effective scares are too few and far in between, which potentially could be due to the fact that there was very little sense of urgency present.

Also, not sure whether or not this was exclusively a result of my entertainment setup but I couldn’t help but notice a few moments of distracting audio/video lag. Dialogue would not match up with lips on a few different occasions, and this was when I COULD hear the dialogue, another audio issue I’m not sure is a rare case. The score here was serviceable, and the sound effects accompanying the creature’s presence are disgusting. Those aside, we get some stock scream sound effects that, to this day, I’m not sure why anybody in their right mind would use. Brief note to filmmakers: If you want to completely tear the audience out of a cinematic experience, simply just throw in some cheesy screams we’ve heard a few dozen times before.

But all is not lost, I must say that I was impressed with some of the creature effects. Most of the effects presented here are practical, including the monster who is only enhanced by digital effects. Not much time is spent spilling blood, but there were a few little gory snippets that had me thinking “holy shit!”. Face ripping, head stomping, heart tearing, it’s all done beautifully and goopily. Had the film gone the route of “mindless gorefest”, I would not have been disappointed. Though, without saying too much for those of you that hold any interest in this, the downbeat ending caught me off-guard and left me feeling a little more satisfied than I thought I might have otherwise.

A low body count and far too much padding make this one a definite skip. It’s a shame, I really wanted to like this, especially considering my penchant for cheesy Sci-fi horror. Being that this is pre-theatricial, you’re going to pay way too much if you want to rent this (around 12 bucks). At any rate, if you’re still curious I’d recommend waiting for the DVD/ Blu-Ray to hit the bargain bin. If not, go get your interplanetary terror fix elsewhere.