Cold Storage (dir. Jonny Campbell)

by Jack Martin | Feb 23, 2026

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 99 mins

UK Distributor: Studiocanal

UK Release Date: 20 February 2026

WHO’S IN COLD STORAGE?

Georgina Campbell, Joe Keery, Sosie Bacon, Vanessa Redgrave, Lesley Manville, Liam Neeson, Darrell D’Silva, Daniel Rigby, Rob Collins, Ellora Torchia, Andrew Brooke, Aaron Heffernan

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Jonny Campbell (director), David Koepp (writer, producer), Gavin Polone (producer), Mathieu Lamboley (composer), Tony Slater Ling (cinematographer), Billy Sneddon (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A deadly fungus escapes captivity and wreaks havoc on a self-storage unit…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON COLD STORAGE?

David Koepp certainly likes to play around with genres in his various scripts, whether it be superhero origin stories like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man or crime thrillers such as Carlito’s Way. In fact, the last year alone has seen the screenwriter fluctuate between the big-budget sci-fi spectacle of Jurassic World: Rebirth, the ensemble spy caper coolness of Black Bag, and the contained supernatural thrills of Presence. But with Cold Storage – adapted from his own book of the same name – he actively tackles a type of film that all those other films owe their own share of gratitude toward.

Which type of film, you may ask? The good old-fashioned B-movie, of course. Specifically, cult classics like The Blob, Killer Klowns from Outer Space and The Return of the Living Dead, all of which deal with ordinary people facing off against a terrifying, monstrous and often extraterrestrial threat before it becomes too big to contain. Like a lot of film lovers, Koepp and director Jonny Campbell clearly adore that classic kind of B-movie schlock and have gone out of their way to replicate the goofy spirit of those films along with the many others of its kind. Their efforts have resulted in a film that’s knowingly silly but fun enough to enjoy in spite of itself, which for B-movie afficionados is all that one could ever want.

The movie opens in 2005, when a highly infectious fungus escapes from a space station oxygen tank and lays waste on a bunch of poor saps in Western Australia. Luckily, the US government – aided by bioterror operative Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) – manages to contain the fungus before it can spread further, transporting a sample to a top-secret underground storage facility on home soil. Cut to the present, when the government has rented out their now-abandoned facility to a self-storage company, where lowly night guards Travis (Joe Keery) and Naomi (Georgina Campbell) share a shift where they catch wind of a mysterious alarm from behind the walls. It soon transpires that they’re hearing an alert that the vault in which the fungus was contained has malfunctioned and that it is beginning to break out and infect anything it can control, kickstarting a gruesome fight for survival as Travis and Naomi, along with Robert who’s called into action, try their best to save the world.

It’s the kind of movie where you know exactly what you’re in store for almost right away, with scenes and dialogue that all feel as though they’ve been lifted straight out of a 50s-era black-and-white schlocker, albeit with a slightly modernised edge. Koepp and Campbell lean hard into the cheesiness of it all, from effects that aren’t exactly the best quality (specifically when animals such as deer come into the picture) to almost intentionally convoluted plotting, to performances and characters who aren’t terrible by any means and are likeable enough, but are directed in a slightly stilted manner that’s directly reminiscent of classic B-movies. Neeson, in particular, is having almost as much fun sending up his tough-guy image as he did in The Naked Gun, though this is far more of a straight-man role which he plays as though it actually was one of his post-Taken action vehicles.

But as corny and overly silly as it all is, there doesn’t seem to be much cynicism at work here. Everything appears to have come from a genuine place of admiration for the B-movie template, as Koepp’s script never takes itself too seriously, nor does Campbell who sneaks in some freaky imagery (albeit coated in some dodgy CGI) and at times adds a touch of genuine suspense. At the same time, it’s hard to ignore the miniscule scale that prevents this premise from being as fleshed out as it could have been, not to mention all the stuff that really doesn’t make sense and seems to just be there for easy convenience, and so many other things which make Cold Storage pretty dumb, some of which I’m not even sure was intentional.

However, the fact that it’s heavily flawed in many areas should hardly be a problem for anyone seeking out a B-movie such as this where all that matters is having fun with a ridiculous concept. Cold Storage provides enough of that to pass as fine entertainment for many, but perhaps not enough to overlook some of its most glaring slip-ups.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Cold Storage is a knowingly silly homage to classic B-movie schlock that sees writer David Koepp (adapting his own book) and director Jonny Campbell lean hard into the likeable cheesiness of their premise, though it may be a bit too mindless to fully enjoy in spite of its own self-awareness.