COLD STORAGE: Joe Keery’s Fungus-Fueled Horror Comedy

Joe Keery’s first post-Stranger Things project hits theaters this weekend, and it’s a little horror comedy called Cold Storage. Written by veteran screenwriter David Koepp, the film clocks you in for some infectious fun alongside some unlikely heroes. And despite its shortcomings, you can’t help but enjoy parts of the wild ride thanks to its charismatic leads.

Travis (Joe Keery) works the night shift at a storage facility, which once served as a military base. His boss is kind of a scumbag, but Travis doesn’t mind the mundanity of the job, especially since he now has a new coworker, Naomi (Georgina Campbell), to keep him company.

Hearing a strange beep, they’re curious to find where it’s coming from. As they follow the noise, they discover a secret tunnel underneath that’s housing a deadly parasitic fungus. As the fungus is slowly finding its way out, their only hope for saving humanity is a senile operative (Liam Neeson).

As I mentioned, the film was written by David Koepp, and if that name doesn’t sound familiar, he has written screenplays for films like Death Becomes Her, Jurassic Park, and several of its sequels, Mission Impossible, last year’s Black Bag, and many others. This film is actually based on his own novel of the same name. And while it’s not up to the standards of the aforementioned titles, Cold Storage is just a fun, ridiculous kind of movie.

It has a surprisingly stacked cast. Aside from Keery, Campbell, and Neeson, the film includes supporting roles from Sosie Bacon and Vanessa Redgrave, the latter of whom is the mother of Neeson’s late wife, Natasha Richardson. So I loved to see their brief on-screen reunion.

The cast is certainly the film’s strongest feature. Neeson delivers his signature sardonic tough guy, while Keery and Campbell provide a more playful energy to the film. And even though I wasn’t fully sold on their chemistry in a romantic sense, I just think they’re both so charming.

In general, everyone seems to be having a lot of fun with the concept. The film leans into the absurdity of it all, which makes it very entertaining, even if it’s not perfect. I almost want to call this a zombie-adjacent film, since the fungus does infect a host, taking over its brain. And there are some decent visual gags as the effects get worse, giving a more zombie-like appearance to folks.

Although I will say the film does suffer greatly from bad CGI, particularly with some of the animal critters. For a mid-budget thriller with such an impressive cast and director, I did expect more. Perhaps it’s that impressive cast that the budget went to, rather than investing in decent artists to make the infection look more palatable.

Another minor complaint I have is with the location not being used to its full potential. I appreciated the unique location, and I enjoyed seeing how the story unfolded within a storage facility. There’s one scene in particular that really uses the setting to its advantage to build tension, as Travis and Naomi try to evade an infected. Outside of that, the storage units are left unexplored. I couldn’t help but wish the characters had raided more units for weapons or odd objects to help them manage the outbreak. There could have been some humorous moments with that and the bizarre things folks store, so it felt a little like a missed opportunity.

Will Cold Storage be the horror comedy of the year? Not at all. I do think the film has some aspects that are a bit underdeveloped and things that are not properly tied up. And that’s probably due to the fact that there’s a lot going on in this film. But as I was watching, it reminded me a bit of Eight Legged Freaks, a film that’s equally goofy and doesn’t take itself too seriously. For some, that might be an immediate turn off, but I still had a solid time with this film, and you may too if you go in expecting something that’s a bit bonkers.