Storage 24

Storage 24 tries so hard to be Alien for this generation, but sadly fails on pretty much every level except this film does have a pretty cool monster.

This may fail in trying to be alien, but i would not say this is a terrible movie. the acting is generally OK through out with some less than desirable moments . But Noel Clarke is continuing to develop into a decent leading man. the claustrophobic nature of the story does add an extra element to the movie building up to some pretty decent jump scares and also providing a decent amount of gore, but not going to far for the sake of it. surprisingly it managed to make me laugh on more that one occasion.

One thing i have to praise is that being a low budget sci-fi/horror it still managed to be shot in a decent way so i could see what is going on. Many films now a days, especially horror films like to play in the dark and shadows so much that can barley see or make out what is going on.

Negatively some of the story points really annoyed me, and i found them distracting. the ending tries to end on a larger scale. when it would have been better off keeping to it's smaller premise. It doesn't offer much either in the guessing game of who's going to live and who's going to die.

Overall a fair effort, but pretty standard low budget British movie.

After a plane crash in central London, a group in a storage containment facility find themselves trapped inside with the vicious alien creature released during the crash and must try to fight if off in order to get out alive.

This turned out to be a rather decent enough creature feature. One of the more enduring elements to this one is the fact that there's a refreshing simplicity to how it plays out, as the film's basically a one-note plot that really goes on through the notes quite efficiently and effectively to where it becomes routine more than anything about what goes on It consistently turns into confrontation, escape, confrontation, escape which is plenty of fun due to the tight, cramped location to work with the rather convoluted layout of the area and the continuous encounters where the creature chases them through heating ducts, storage units and throughout the building itself that the scenes make for a rather creepy and exciting set of action. The fact that the alien creature here is quite imposing is where it really helps score a little extra as well because the otherworldly appearance, as the spiked mouth, tentacled fingers and humanoid body create a powerful enough figure without seeing too much of it to lessen it's visual appeal as the creature really helps generate a lot of good marks during the film as the repetitive, action-packed nature of the film results in a creepy monster stalking and attacking people trapped in a creepy location, only to escape and run into it later on so there's a sense of familiarity to this as it goes on which can lower this somewhat. As well, the film's blatant disregard for information-revealing is a bit of a problem as it tends to keep so many ideas and plot-points completely unknown to the viewer about the alien creature, what happened to it and the fates of several characters, and about the only plot-point to this that doesn't work is the long build-up here that results in some painful amount of time not going anywhere due to the aggravation of the animosity towards each other. Otherwise, this is a fine effort.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Lots of people get trapped in a building, with an alien beast on the loose. One of them has just broken up with his girlfriend. She's also stuck in there, along with the guy's best friend, who she was having an affair with. TENSION!! There's also an eccentric gentleman in an ugly dressing gown who might as well be followed by a huge neon sign which says COMEDY RELIEF, A gruff engineer trying to fix the strange power cuts which have been going on and off all day (guess what happens to him) and some others who can charitably be described as 'cannon fodder'.

Basically, this is a creature feature, the sort they've made for donkeys years... albeit a British one. The chases down narrow tunnels, the sight of disembodied limbs and torsos scattered about, even the fiend itself... are 'borrowed' from a million other movies... most specifically, a certain series starring Sigourney Weaver. This doesn't make it a bad film per se, but it's not one to fire up the imagination in any way (HEY THAT RHYMES!!). It provides a few cheap thrills, but you probably won't recall it a week from now. Or indeed, the next time you go to the bathroom. 5/10

Quite well made with some nice creature effects, but I'm afraid it has little else in its favour. Yes, there are a few 'jump out of your skin' moments, but it really doesn't do anything we haven't seen before. For me, they revealed far too much of the creature far too soon; for horror to work well, it needs to be in the shadows. It's what the audience doesn't see that scares them; the imagination is a very powerful thing if manipulated correctly. The performances were all decent enough although nobody really stood out. On the plus side the running time was nice and short and the pace was kept pretty high throughout. Oh, and I have to admit, I love the ending!… Sadly not quite enough for it to get my recommendation though.

SteelMonster's verdict: NOT RECOMMENDED

My score: 5.6/10

You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

It should be no surprise that a former (and still working SFX man) was at the helm of this movie. You can clearly see his handwriting or rather effects writing or whatever you want to call it. Unfortunately the script and the characters do not hold up to his effects standard. And while the movie is not bad, it's not really good either.

You get cardboard characters and story developments that are easily guessed by anyone watching the movie. It's still a neat ride overall, but never a really completely satisfying one. I don't really blame the actors too much on this, because I've seen some of them in better movies and with better performances. If the focus could have been on other things than the effects and the set pieces, there might have been a chance this movie would have gathered a larger following.