“Stranger Issues” heartthrob Joe Keery has an extended historical past of preventing aliens within the American Midwest, and “Barbarian” breakout Georgina Campbell is aware of a factor or two about renting spooky areas in a horror film. However as co-workers in “Chilly Storage,” a jumpy new sci-fi comedy from director Jonny Campbell set inside a public storage unit in Kansas, the leads supply greater than the sum of their resumes.
From StudioCanal, this stunning crowdpleaser isn’t strictly talking a rom-comregardless of arriving in theaters on February 13. The presence of Liam Neeson as a grizzled authorities scientist firmly nudges David Koepp’s script extra towards horror-motion than horror-romancehowever flirty banter remains to be a vital linchpin within the screenwriter’s easy, efficient adaptation of his personal graphic novel. The result’s a single-location gross-out journey that finds its greatest beats in Keery and Campbell’s fizzy chemistry, and an intergalactic parasite that possesses its victims’ minds — earlier than making their our bodies actually explode.
Teacake (Keery) and Naomi (Campbell) are night-shift workers at a storage facility constructed on high of an outdated U.S. army base. That’s a formidable indictment of poor zoning restrictions, and when a parasitic fungus escapes from the bottom sublevel, sealed by the federal government way back for apparent causes, rising temperatures wake the microorganism from a deep sleep. What follows is a rapidly escalating mess of mutation that neatly expands zombie mythology, whereas conserving its personal world grounded and small.
The perfect horror films perceive learn how to refurbish concepts we’ve seen earlier than, and “Chilly Storage” does that with out straining its salesmanship or sense of novelty. This isn’t the primary time a lethal fungus has taken over Earth (“The Final of Us”), neither is it the primary time an alien microorganism has pushed individuals to do unspeakable issues (“Chook Field”). Koepp commingles these darkish concepts and by some means lightens the temper, touchdown on a narrative that’s tonally nearer to “Ghostbusters” than “The Factor.”
A home cat commits suicide by ramming its personal head via a radio antenna. Human victims impacted activate themselves after which survivors in a battle that by no means leaves the constructing’s grounds quickly grows in its apocalyptic scale. The cartoonish digital results skew gooey over grim, and “Chilly Storage” lets its performers reply to that extra with a believability that ensures Naomi and Teacake are compelling even when the core thriller’s suspense begins to slide. When the going will get robust, they fight to bail — and that needs to be relatable sufficient to anybody who’s ever been paid by the hour.
Taking part in one other affable himbo who’s wiser and kinder than he seems, Keery continues to double-down on the form of performances which have outlined his post-“Stranger Issues” profession. Misguided however not detached, Teacake oozes the imprecise philosophical curiosity of a person who would possibly by accident save the world, and whereas the character by no means ideas into outright parody, the position appears like a blueprint for one thing much more ludicrous for Keery down the road. His presence injects a scrappy likability that makes you root for your complete operation, and watching Keery wander via aggressively shiny hallways that will swallow an unknown, he holds focus and underlines how essential casting might be to an indie’s success.
In the meantime, Campbell gives a peppier model of herself than audiences have come to anticipate, however she sinks comfortably into her character. The “straight man” to Keery’s Teacake, Naomi is observant and emotionally current with out dragging her scene associate’s power down. When Naomi’s ex-boyfriend Mike (Aaron Heffernan) exhibits as much as her shift and falls sufferer to the spreading fungus, she is compelled to avoid wasting the planet whereas watching him morph past recognition. We’ve seen Campbell witness a love curiosity get destroyed by a monster with heavier anguish (hey once more, “Barbarian”), however her restraint right here lets Naomi really feel as “actual” because the street-smart Teacake with out preventing the movie’s lighter cues.
That dimensionality extends to a lot of the supporting solid, together with Dr. Hero Martins (“Smile” icon Sosie Bacon) who, in a flashback from an incident 18 years prior, induces chills by giving a medical description of victims’ pores and skin and skulls bursting because the parasite labored its means in to their programs. The “Chilly Storage” introduction makes use of that background to determine actual stakes, earlier than the film pivots again to comedy and the realism neatly persists. Property supervisor Griffin (Gavin Spokes) is predictably terrible as Teacake and Naomi’s boss, however he turns into genuinely unsettling when his eyes gentle up at the potential of an “lively shooter” on the premises. It’s a grimly humorous misunderstanding that lands as a result of a recognizable character can’t wait to get right into a nightmare he solely thinks he is aware of.
Neeson’s position as retired DTRA agent Robert Quinn is ample however forgettable. Though the “Taken” legend’s presence lends a way of legitimacy to the film’s authorities trappings, his arc by no means lives as much as the promise of a microscopic foe that makes individuals spontaneously combust. His rousing speeches and phone-bound communication with a youthful operative (Ellora Torchia) don’t carry the burden or sentimentality the movie appears to need them to, particularly stacked in opposition to the visceral power of the opening. However when Quinn and his outdated colleague Trini Romano (Lesley Manville) lastly meet Naomi and Teacake on the bottom within the current day, the film’s power snaps into place and largely stays put.
“Chilly Storage” advantages from being Koepp’s second go on a narrative he already understands intrinsically. Among the many most commercially profitable screenwriters of all time, his expertise shines via in a pared-down universe that features like a lit show case for punchy dialogue and sudden selections. When an contaminated attacker snarls, “Open your mouth. I wish to throw up in it,” it’s clear the “Conflict of the Worlds” and “Jurassic Park” screenwriter is aware of not simply what film he’s making however how audiences see many core style ideas in 2026.
The director proves savvy sufficient to let Koepp’s writing do the heavy lifting, capturing the blankness of the storage facility as a comic book canvas that favors readability of efficiency over acquainted, muddy dread. Chook’s-eye compositions and dynamic lighting help tonal gambits that may in any other case curdle, together with a memorable look by Vanessa Redgrave as an aged widow visiting her unit with a handgun on her late husband’s demise anniversary. The idea can be scarier and sadder at midnight, however the plot’s playfulness pairs nicely with fluorescent glare. You would possibly want extra results have been sensible in that context, however even digitally rendered, Campbell and Koepp ship greater than you cut price for.
As a February launch (historically thought-about a part of horror’s offseason), “Chilly Storage” is an particularly nice shock. With Keery and Campbell making it an occasion worthy of theaters, the movie occupies a shrinking center floor as a mid-budget style effort that isn’t chasing franchise immortality — or apologizing for audiences’ time-tested affection for silliness. Assume “Goosebumps” for adults behind a padlock and accordion door: bizarre, messy, and a genuinely good time when you crack it open.
Grade: B+
From StudioCanal, “Chilly Storage” is in theaters on February 13.
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