DVD/BLU-RAY REVIEW: FTN reviews Storage 24

Storage 24 (15)
Directed by: Johannes Roberts
Starring: Noel Clarke, Colin O’Donoghue and Antonia Campbell-Hughes
Running time: 87 min
Out now on DVD & Blu-ray

In London, a military plane crashes leaving its highly classified contents strewn across the city. Completely unaware that the city is in lockdown, a group of people become trapped inside a storage facility with a highly unwelcome guest.

Storage 24 is yet another entry into the rising career of Noel Clarke, Doctor Who’s former companion and creator of both Kidulthood and sequel Adulthood. Co-written by Clarke, storage 24 opens with an apparent plane crash in London. Unaware that this has happened, Charlie (Clarke) and Mark (O’Donoghue) are on their way to Storage 24 as Charlie has broken up with his girlfriend Shelley (Campbell-Hughes). They are going there to divide up their possessions and Charlie is not a happy man, especially when he finds out that Shelley and Mark have been seeing each other behind his back. Along too is Shelley’s mate Nikki (Laura Haddock) and when they all meet up, the place goes into lockdown as the outside crisis heightens. And it soon becomes clear that something has survived the crash, something that is alien and out to kill them all.

I have to say this is a cracking movie. Noel Clarke should be proud of what has been achieved here. He and his fellow writers Marc Small and Davie Fairbanks have taken an age old formula and made it their own. And they give it a final sting in the tale come the final shot of the movie, one I never saw coming.

This is a base under siege setting where our heroes must fight for survival against the alien menace. The performances are top notch and director Johannes Roberts uses every trick in the book to raise the tension. Close ups, fish angles and scarce glimpses of the beast rank up the tension by putting us right in the centre of not only the action but the characters’ emotions. Even the classic air vents scenario is used but again adds to the characters’ personas.

Now Clarke has said he wanted the alien to be just like Carnage from Spiderman and he almost achieves it. For a British movie on a low budget, the alien monster here is absolutely stunning and the effects are excellent. You believe that someone has just had their face ripped off or the alien really has ripped apart a metal wall to get to our heroes.

All in all, this is one to watch and Clarke is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. His quality of work just keeps getting better and better and Storage 24 stands up there with some of the greats. This is an old formula with a new sheen and the final scene will make you want a sequel.

4 out of 5 Nerds