Review of Storage 24 (2012) by Arif S — 25 Jan 2013

Written and produced by the exceptionally talented and criminally under-rated, Noel Clarke, 'Storage 24' is the tale of a group of people trapped inside a storage facilities following a plane crash. The military cargo plane was carrying a mysterious alien life form which, of course, ends up in the warehouse along with our disparate and unsuspecting group.

It's not that bad an effort for a British low-budget sci-fi horror flick but it doesn't really bring anything new to the genre either. The creature itself isn't that scary and this is partly because I was hardly ever convinced that the characters themselves were actually scared. Put it this way: I don't know about you, but if I came up against a big scary vicious alien that seemed quite keen to take my head off, I would leg it out of there right sharpish. Out of all the options available to me, the very last one that I would take would be to stand still in front of said alien and just take my time having a good look at it...

The script was OK too, using an awkward love-triangle to focus on how people in conflict with each other might behave when faced with a common enemy. Disappointingly though, as seems to be the trend in a lot of movies these days, none of the characters are particularly likeable, so ultimately you don't really care that much if any of them get out or not.

It's still an enjoyable enough way to spend an hour and a half though, even if it may be the weakest hand that Clarke's played to date. Of course, much of that is down to budgetary constraints (including being forced to write an entirely different ending). Who knows what could be done with a bit more money and a bigger cast?

Clarke has said that he already has a sequel that he feels 'Storage 24' deserves, as long as the studio can be persuaded. Despite its flaws, there may be just enough there to carry the story on; if nothing else it probably deserves a second chance.